This Spicy Corn Chowder recipe is from Jeffrey Spear, a “marketing guru…working with manufacturers of food, beverage and other lifestyle products” and was published in the cookbook Yum! Tasty Recipes From Culinary Greats.

Yum is collection of over 100 great recipes from chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook writers and culinary marketers sharing some of their favorite recipes. This collaboration was put together by Microplane, the manufacturer of some of my favorite culinary tools that you may be familiar with and who are donating 100% of its profits from the sale of the book to the National Kidney Foundation (www.kidney.org).

Yum is available at Amazon.com

Some of the writers may be familiar to you including Rick Bayless, Sara Moulton, Susanna Foo, Gael Greene and Charlie Trotter and then there are some like the author of this recipe who may be new to you.

I was fortunate to receive this cookbook from Kimberly Goldstein who works for the publisher Cumberland House located in Nashville, Tennessee and specializes in, among other things, cookbooks. Thank you Kim for sending Yum to me and I can’t wait to try these great looking recipes and sharing some with my readers.

Spicy Corn Chowder
By Jeffrey Spear & Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, grated coarsely
1 tablespoon All-Purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 – 3 large red potatoes, peeled & cut into ½ inch dice
4 cups corn (fresh or frozen)
1 ½ cups whole milk
Salt & pepper to taste
Tabasco, to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

How to Make Spice Corn Chowder

In a large pot, heat oil and melt butter. Add the onion and sauté until soft, not brown. Add flour and stir for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add the stock gradually, being sure to stir constantly to incorporate the flour. Add the potatoes and corn. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat.

Transfer half of the soup to a separate bowl. Ladle this soup, a little at a time, into a blender. Puree until creamy smooth. You can return the soup puree from the blender back into the pot as you go. When done, add milk, salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste. Adjust the spiciness of the soup with the Tabasco. Return to heat, bring to a desired temperature and serve. Garnish with chives.

Jeffrey notes: you can also use an immersion blender right in the pot, taking care not to puree all of the solids. The soup won’t be quite as smooth and creamy but much faster to make. Less dishes to wash as well.

Homemade Tomato Soup Recipe

I’m sure if you made this tomato soup recipe with fresh Jersey tomatoes when they are in season and perfectly ripe it would taste better but sometimes you are craving a hot tomato soup when the weather is cold outside. In this case, I used canned tomatoes and still received rave reviews from family and friends.

There are many brands of canned tomatoes on the market these days so it is important to pick the one that has the best flavor to you. Look for whole, peeled tomatoes that are firm and aren’t too salty or have that processed taste.

Classic tomato soup is very simple with some basic ingredients. I added two extra ingredients to this recipe to give it additional flavor and then added a puff pastry topping because I talked about it in a blog post, Tomato Soup with Pastry On Top and wanted to give it a try. The additional ingredients were both added at the end and were cream and roasted peppers. You can experiment with your own variations using different herbs or dairy products including sour cream crème fraiche, heavy cream or soft cheese.

Classic Tomato Soup Recipe

Ingredients

2 tablespoons virgin olive oil
1-tablespoon butter
1 large white onion, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 cups chicken stock
1 – 28 oz. can of whole peeled plum tomatoes (with juice)
Sugar, to taste
Red wine vinegar, to taste
1 or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried
Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
½ cup heavy cream (optional)
1 small jar of roasted peppers

How to Make Homemade Tomato Soup at Home

Start by heating a big soup pot over medium heat, add the butter and oil and then the chopped onion & garlic. When the onions are soft, add the chicken stock, tomatoes, sugar, a little red wine vinegar, thyme and salt & pepper.

Raise the heat to medium-high and bring the soup to a simmer. Once at a simmer, lower the heat to low, cover the pot and cook for 45 minutes.

When the soup is done, remove the thyme twig(s) and puree the soup. You can use a blender or food processor. I like using my hand blender. It works great, is easy to clean and I don’t have to lug the big pot over to the food processor and inevitably spill some soup on the counter.

I added the heavy cream and roasted peppers just before I pureed the soup but I guess you could add them 5 minutes before the soup is done. For me the peppers were a last minute addition that I wasn’t planning from the start and it worked out great.

After pureeing the soup, let it cool down before serving. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper and serve.

Puff Pastry

You can make this soup more fancy with the addition of a puff pastry topping. There is a puff pastry recipe here from my friend Chef Jennifer Field for making a pastry crust but she also suggests trying the frozen ready-made puff pastry available at your supermarket.

I opted for the second option and it was a hit.

Recently I received an email from Annelie B. asking, “I was out for dinner - we had tomato soup baked with pastry on top - how do I do that? ”

So I asked my friend Chef Jennifer Field what she would do and her reply is below. I thought it was interesting that she gave the ingredients to me in grams and not ounces. I asked Chef Jenni about this and will offer you her response in an upcoming blog. I have included the conversions to exact measurements but I would round them off if I were making this but we will learn more about that in Chef Jenni’s response.

“Spooning down through a pastry crust to get to the tomato soup underneath–sounds like a winner! And easy to do at home, as well. You can either make a savory pie crust yourself….

Ingredients

420 g (14.82 oz.) all purpose flour
10 g (0.35 oz.) salt
200 g (7.05oz.) butter
4 oz. cold water.

How to Make a Pastry Crust For Tomato Soup

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with your fingers until the flour is very mealy and you can’t see individual pieces of butter. Do this quickly–you want to keep things cold so you don’t end up making paste.

Put 2-3 ice cubes in your water, then drizzle in about 1 oz. of water at a time. In between drizzles, toss the flour with the water to evenly distribute it. When you get about 3 1/2 oz. of water incorporated, test it by squeezing a bit of the dough together (it won’t look like dough until you squeeze it). If it’s not staying together, add the rest of the water. If it is staying together, resist the urge to add more water and compress the dough into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll between two sheets of parchment to about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Cut to fit over your soup crock, and press the edges down around the crock with hot soup in it. Brush with 1 egg beaten with 2 teaspoons of water.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and delicious. For an added treat, sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the soup before you put on the crust, or grate on some cheese during the last 5 minutes of baking.

…or,if that seems way too much like work, and I wouldn’t much blame you if it does, use frozen ready-made puff pastry, available in the freezer aisle. Thaw it in the fridge overnight, cut to fit and bake according to the package directions.”

Yay, soup!