Corn Chowder! Saucey Style...

We are absolutely loving corn!  We can't get enough of it...  I had a couple of left over cobs and decided to make corn chowder with a pumpkin base.

Here's what I did:

Heat olive oil (maybe 2 tblsps) in a pot then add a chopped onion and 2 -3 cloves of garlic with about 2 tsp of honey.  Once they've sweated, add 1 large chopped and peeled potato and an apple, peeled and cored.  To that, add about 3 cups of cubed akaido squash (you don't have to peel it) and freshly cut kernels from a corn cob.
I have this awesome pumpkin spice packet that I bought in a local health food store.  I added about a tsp of that.  Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves would work too (you could even add a little curry, cumin etc.).  We're talking like 1/4 teaspoon each.  I would tread carefully...  you can always add more at the end for stronger flavor.  Then I ran to the garden and collected fresh thyme, sage, chives and parsley and made a bouquet garni.  You know...  fresh herbs tied together with a white thread so you can easily remove it when you're finished cooking.  This is what it looked like at this stage.

I added enough vegetable broth to cover the vegetables (about 3/4 of a liter), covered the pot and let it simmer for 15 minutes.  In the mean time, I cut the kernels off of another cob of corn and pan roasted them in butter and honey!  OMG it smelled soooooo good.  My boys were already bugging me about when we could eat.  You can play around here as well.  I would have happily caramelized chopped onions too.  The problem is my kids would complain.

When the 15 minutes is up, make sure that the potatoes are cooked through.  If not, let the soup simmer another 5 minutes or so.  So, when the potatoes are soft, pull out the bouquet garni and puree with your hand held mixer.  I added a 1/4 cup of white wine and shot of heavy cream at this point.  Lemon juice would do well here too and if you want to avoid the cream, add a chopped leek to the mix from the beginning.  They are so creamy!  Salt and pepper to taste and mix in your corn kernels.  If your soup is too thick, try adding apple juice or cider until you have the desired consistency.

It was really good!  The boys loved it too :-)