Corn, Andouille Sausage & Chicken Chowder With Chipotle Chilies & Adobo Sauce

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Here we are, definitely past summer and any possibility of fresh, local corn, and I get a hankering for corn chowder. Go figure. Thankfully there are several companies that package good frozen corn kernels, S&W's Petit White & Yellow Corn is one; Eden Products packages an organic corn. I found the S&W on sale recently and bought up a number of packages. Next summer I'm determined to buy local, organic corn and freeze it myself.

This soup came together on the fly, so to speak, with me getting inspiration for additional ingredients as I was cooking. At the last minute I decided that some of my slow-roasted tomatoes, recipe courtesy of Kalyn, needed to go into the pot. And with wonderful success, I might add. They gave the soup another dimension of flavors that complimented the rest of the ingredients perfectly. Be careful in the use of the chipotle chile in adobo. Mine were exceedingly hot. The addition of the adobo sauce, however, gave the soup a wonderful smokey quality.

Corn, Andouille & Chicken Chowder
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, yellow or sweet, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3-4 cups frozen corn kernels, such as S&W White & Yellow petit or Eden brand organic
6 cups chicken broth, divided
6-8 slow-roasted tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 chipotle chile (from canned chipotle in adobo)
1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce
1 cup heavy cream or 1/2 & 1/2
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 andouille sausages, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch slices
6 chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

Preparation:
Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat.
Saute the onions until just softened. Add the red bell pepper and saute until both veggies are soft.
Add the corn kernels, 5 1/2 cups chicken stock, tomatoes, marjoram, chipotle chile and adobo sauce and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another heavy skillet over medium high heat, saute the andouille slices until browned on both sides and the fat has melted into the pan. You may have to do this in several batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Place the sausage slices on a plate and keep warm.

Add the chicken pieces to the same pan and brown on both sides until cooked through, about 8 minutes. Again, this may have to be done in several batches. Add the cooked chicken to the sausage plate.
Deglaze the skillet with the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken stock, scraping up all the good browned bits that have stuck to the pan. Pour this liquid into the soup pot.
With an immersion blender, or a food processor, blend the soup until just slightly chunky.
With the pot over low heat, add the cream, chicken and sausage and stir until blended and warmed through.
Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding salt and pepper as needed.
Serve in warm bowls.
A dollop of homemade creme fraiche would be perfect on this soup topped with a sprig of fresh marjoram.

Marjoram being my herb of choice in the making of this soup, makes this a dish perfect for Weekend Herb Blogging #58. Our host this week is Meeta at What's For Lunch Honey? Click here to learn about Weekend Herb Blogging, a popular global event that our dear Kalyn originated over a year ago, and click here to read the guidelines and join in the fun. Submit your posted recipe to Meeta by Sunday, 3 PM Utah time.

Homemade Creme Fraiche

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It seems like such a very long time ago that I put a post on my blog for making creme fraiche. Since then, although the ingredients are still the same (now I use locally produced dairy products) and the method identical, I've changed the measurements which has resulted in a very creamy, silky-textured creme fraiche that I like better than my original. This is so simple to make, I don't know why everyone doesn't have a jar of it setting up on the back of their stove.

Creme fraiche is only as good its ingredients and I try to use fresh, organic if possible, rBST-free dairy products. The ingredients in this recipe, while not from the much-lauded Strauss Family Creamery, are from local dairy cows, fed on grass-rich, local dairy pastures and produced by our local Humboldt Creamery. While not organic per se, they do come from within 50 miles of my home and are not fed hormones. Not to be disloyal to local dairies but next time I make this I will try the Strauss Family dairy products to see if I get a superior product.

Creme fraiche is a boon to the carb-conscious, coming in at less than 1 gram of carbohydrate per 1 tablespoon. It's not low fat however, so I suggest one be light-handed with portion size. It's a perfect garnish for soups, such as this butternut squash bisque or this squash-ginger-shiitake soup, and when combined with a tiny bit of sugar or Splenda and a splash of vanilla, is a great topping for desserts or on these itty bitty low-carb pancakes.

Homemade Creme Fraiche
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream, not ultra-pasteurized (use the best you can find)
2 tablespoons buttermilk (I used 1% butterfat and it worked fine but you can use up to 3% butterfat content)
1 - 12 ounce glass jar with a tight fitting lid
1 - 2 cup glass measuring cup
1 metal whisk or spoon

Preparation:
Sterilize the glass jar, lid, measuring cup and spoon by either running them through your dishwasher or allowing them to steep in boiling water for a few minutes. Drain on a clean dish towel.
Pour the whipping cream and the buttermilk into the measuring cup and stir until blended.
Pour the liquid into the glass jar and screw the lid on tightly.
Set the jar on the back of your stove or other rather warm place in your kitchen for about 8 hours.
Stir the contents of the jar. If the cream has thickened to the consistency of silky, soft yogurt, it's done. If not, screw the jar back on and allow to sit for another 4 to 6 hours.
When the cream has thickened, give it a stir, put the lid back on and store it in the fridge. It will keep there for 3 weeks to 1 month.

A note of caution: If 24 hours goes by and your cream has not thickened, throw it out and start over. You might try using a different brand of dairy products, plus check to see that your cream is not ultra-pasteurized.

Fleur De Sel De Guerande

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Ooooooh, la la! My little package of Fleur de Sel de Guerande arrived from Amazon on Friday. This salt is from Brittany, purported to be the best in the world, hand-raked and... Well, I should just let David tell you all about it. He was there, afterall.

Reading David's post is what prompted me to order my very own container and I'm so happy it's finally arrived because this is absolutely, without a doubt, the best salt I've ever tasted.

We ate the very last of the heirloom tomatoes last night, sprinkled with these gorgeous crystals. Read David's post then click on over to Amazon to order your very own. Because I'm not sharing mine. No way!

Seared Lamb Chops With Roasted Root Vegetable Medley

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I'm not sure if the highlight of our dinner last night was the roasted root veggies or the marinated lamb loin chops, they were both so good. Best of all, we've got leftovers. And it's almost lunch time. So I'm going to make this post quick. No fooling around trying to write something clever. Just the straight skinny. Shoot from the hip. Quick as a bunny. The cliches keep coming...

Roasted Cauliflower, Broccoli, Leeks, Carrots and Garlic
Ingredients:
2 medium heads organic cauliflower
1 large bunch organic broccoli
2 leeks
1 bunch organic carrots (about 8 carrots)
2 heads organic garlic
1 tablespoon dried marjoram
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil for the pan and to drizzle on the veggies

Preparation:
Wash and drain the cauliflower and broccoli and cut into small florettes.
Using only the white parts of the leeks, cut a slit down each leek lengthwise and clean the dirt out of the layers.
Cut the leeks crosswise into 1-inch pieces.
Peel the carrots, if desired, and cut into 3-inch lengths.
Separate and peel the garlic cloves. Keep whole.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Place all the veggies in a large roasting pan that has been drizzled lightly with olive oil.
Drizzle more olive oil on the veggies (about 1 tablespoon, maybe a bit less, I don't measure) then sprinkle on the salt, pepper and marjoram. Mix well with your hands.
Cover the pan with foil and put in the oven for about 25 minutes.
Remove the foil from the pan, loosen any stuck on veggies with a spatula and return to the oven for an additional 20 minutes or until the veggies are a golden brown.

Seared Marinated Lamb Loin Chops
Ingredients:
3 large cloves garlic, chopped fine
1/4 heaping teaspoon each, cumin and cardamom
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 1-inch thick lamb loin chops

Preparation:
Whisk all the ingredients, except the lamb chops of course, together in a bowl. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. (See cook's notes below)
Rinse the lamb chops and pat dry with a paper towel.
Place the chops in a gallon-size zip-lock freezer bag and pour in the marinade.
Zip the bag closed, removing as much of the air as possible.
Turning the bag over and over, coat the chops with the marinade. Allow to sit on the counter for at least 20 minutes or as long as 1/2 hour, turning the bag over several times more.
Heat a heavy skillet on medium high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon butter to the pan and when it has melted, drain the chops from the marinade and place in the pan.
Sear each side for about 4 minutes for medium rare. The chops should be nicely browned with a bit of a crust and a tender interior. Don't crowd the chops in the pan; you don't want them to steam.
That's it. Plate the chops with the veggies, pour a glass of good red wine and enjoy.



Cook's Notes:
I adapted the lamb chop marinade recipe from one I found on Epicurious. I've given you the list of ingredients exactly as I used them but if I were to make this again I would omit the lime juice entirely and use just the orange juice, possibly add a bit of lemon juice.

Red Curry Soup With Chicken, Edamame & Cilantro

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What to do when you want a quick, hot soup for lunch and there's "nothing" in the cupboards? You drop back ten yards and punt, as the saying goes. Using a base of vegetable stock, coconut milk and red curry paste, a bowl of soup is on the table in no time.

As I was preparing this, I remembered that it's time for Weekend Herb Blogging so I went out to the herb beds to see what I could find. There, peaking out from between some parsley and sage, was a little volunteer cilantro plant. Not too far away was another, older one sporting some late-season flowers.

Now I know that Kalyn, our intrepid WHB founder and host of this week's event, featured cilantro the entire month of October, so I do apologize for prolonging the agony of cilantro-haters 'round the globe. But, really, what other herb goes so well with coconut milk and curry paste AND happens to be growing in my herb bed at the moment? I can hear the clamoring for lemongrass, basil, anything but cilantro. Sorry, cilantro's what I had so cilantro it had to be.

Kalyn will be posting a round up of the entries for this week's WHB on her blog, Kalyn's Kitchen, this sunday night. Click here to find out more about this popular weekly event. Click here to find out how to join in the fun.

Red Curry Soup with Chicken, Edamame & Cilantro
Inspired by a few good cans and some leftovers
Ingredients:
14 oz lite coconut milk
14 oz good vegetable stock
1 teaspoon red curry paste, such as Thai Kitchen brand (more if you like it hot)
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Splenda
1/2 cup frozen edamame
1/2 to 2/3 cup shredded, cooked chicken
1 teaspoon cilantro, finely chopped

Preparation:
In a medium size saucepan over medium heat, combine the coconut milk, vegetable stock, curry paste, soy sauce and Splenda (or regular sugar if you prefer), stirring until smooth.
When the mixture is quite hot but not boiling, add the edamame and cook until it is tender. Do not allow to boil.
Using leftover chicken from yesterday's post, add it to the pot, keeping the soup at a simmer until the chicken is heated through.
Remove the pot from the stove, adjust the seasonings (if I'd had a fresh lime I would have squeezed a bit of its juice into the soup at this point) and, just before serving, stir in the chopped cilantro.

Roasted Whole Chicken With Rosemary, Oranges, Garlic And Vegetables

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How could this have happened? You're a food blogger. You prepare food all the time and post it to your blog. You own a cute little camera that never leaves your side, with which you photograph your creations, ad nauseum, pasting them along side the food that you've so lovingly prepared for your blog, er, um, family.

So, how could this have happened? Yesterday you took a whole chicken out of the freezer with the intention of sticking a beer can up its thawed cavity and grilling it al la the recipe your niece recently sent you. The day goes on, it gets late, then it gets cold outside. Does the Master Griller really want to stand out in the cold to grill a chicken with a beer can up its ass? Thought not.

Quickly you go to Plan B, which is forming in bits and bites as you rush around the kitchen. You crank the oven up to 400, rub the chicken inside and out with olive oil, sprinkle it with kosher salt and freshly minced rosemary. You go to the fridge for a lemon. No lemon. Ah! There's an orange. Use that. You cut the orange into eighths, squeezing juice over the bird and tossing the spent pieces into its cavity, muttering "God, will this really work?"

No time to think about it now as you shove in two large rosemary sprigs. You take a head of garlic, separate the cloves leaving the skins intact, and throw a handful inside the chicken, scattering the rest in the roasting pan in which the chicken is resting.

Looking in the fridge's veggie bins, you take out some potatoes that your neighbor recently dug from her garden, some carrots, some parsnips (euwww! Mushy. Into the compost bucket), and a beautiful fennel bulb (good save!). You cut those veggies into chunks and scatter them around the chicken, dropping another handful of unpeeled garlic cloves hither and thither. You chop more rosemary, sprinkle it over the veggies then you drizzle just a bit more olive oil over everything along with a few more squeezes of orange juice, dropping the spent wedges into the pan.

Standing back to view your work, you sprinkle a bit more kosher salt plus generous grindings of the peppercorn medley that your friend Erika turned you on to, all over everything. Then, oh, yeah, truss the bird! Then you pour 1/2 cup or so of white wine over it all, cover the pan with foil and stick it in the oven, immediately lowering the temperature to 350. Whew! You pour yourself a glass of the white wine and breath deeply, thinking that you might catch a bit of tonight's episode of Iron Chef America. You feel a bit Iron Chef-like yourself.

The phone rings. Happily, it's one of your sons calling. You talk for about 45 minutes. You ache to check the oven but are loathe to cut into this precious mother-son conversation, so you don't. Conversation finished, finally you are able to remove the foil from the roasting pan; a very white chicken looks up at you. Thinking fast, you pour about 2/3 cup of good chicken stock over the bird and around the veggies, loosening them from the pan and, leaving the foil off, shove the whole thing back into the oven, this time at 375, for another 25 minutes, catching the last 5 minutes of Iron Chef America. At least you got to see that the newby ousted Bobby Flay.

You peek into the oven again and see that everything is done to perfection: the bird is golden brown, crisp on the outside, juicy and steaming with flavor; the veggies tenderly roasted in a broth redolent of orange, rosemary and garlic; the deeply caramelized garlic cloves fairly bursting from their skins.

Dinner is served and your family swoons in delight with each bite. You bask in their praise, internally shaking your head in disbelief that you pulled this off.

The next morning, still rosey with the afterglow of your culinary prowess, you turn on your computer and begin to write to your blog. A nagging feeling starts to creep down your neck and lodge itself between your shoulder blades. No photos. You: proud cook, food blogger, and food photographer, you did not take ONE DAMNED PHOTO!

HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED?

So there you sit, finger poised above the "Publish Post" button.

Do you dare...........?

Pork Chops With Rosemary, Port & Lingonberry Sauce Plus Roasted Asparagus

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If I had a sub-heading on my blog called Quick & Easy Dinners, this dish would go there. I don't have such a heading however, so I'd advise you to make a note that It takes just 1/2 hour to prepare and plate this meal, including roasting the asparagus. That is, of course, if you can get your significant other to make the salad, which he happily did.
I suggest preparing the asparagus for roasting before beginning the chops. When you begin searing the chops, put the asparagus in the oven. Both dishes should be ready at about the same time.

Pork Chops with Rosemary, Port & Lingonberry Sauce
Serves two people. May be doubled.

Ingredients:
2 1-inch thick center cut pork chops, fat trimmed
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced fine
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup chicken broth (I use low-sodium, no-fat)
1/2 cup ruby Port
2/3 cup lingonberry preserves

Preparation:
Sprinkle both sides of chops with kosher salt, pepper and 1 teaspoon minced rosemary.
Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
When the pan is hot and butter is melted, add the chops and cook about 3 minutes on each side, until browned and just cooked through.
Remove chops to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.
Add the chicken broth, Port and remaining rosemary to the pan and stir to deglaze, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
With heat on high, boil the liquid until it has reduced by 1/2, about 4 minutes.
Add the lingonberry preserves, stir, bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium and let the sauce simmer until it has thickened slightly.
Season the sauce with salt and pepper if needed.
Return the chops to the sauce along with any juices that may have accumulated on the plate, turning chops to coat. Immediately plate chops, spooning sauce over the top.

Oven Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients:
2 pounds asparagus, organic if available
kosher salt
good olive oil

Preparation:
Heat oven to 450 degrees.
Wash asparagus. Holding a spear with your hands at each end, bend the stem and snap it where it wants to break. Discard the tough bottom ends or save for making soup at a later time.
Drizzle a cookie sheet pan with a small amount of good olive oil.
Place the asparagus spears in the pan, lined up side by side, not crossing over each other.
Sprinkle the spears with kosher salt and another small drizzle of olive oil.
Place the asparagus pan in the hot oven and roast for 8-10 minutes, shaking the pan to roll the spears over halfway through the roasting time.
Serve hot with the pork chops.

Note: I bought my lingonberry preserves at the Nugget Market in Davis a few weeks ago. I only find it on the grocery shelves in the fall leading up to the holidays, which is why I've given you several links for on-line purchase.