Corn Chowder and Cornish Game Hen
It has been a while since I spent a Sunday cooking. Lately I have been on a soup kick, eating soup with almost every meal. So Sunday I decided to whip up a huge pot of soup and some dinner.
After looking through my various cookbooks I finally decided on a Corn Chowder recipe out of the Joy of Cooking. I consider this book a must have for any wanna be home chef. The recipes are generally basic but have always turned out better than expected. Probably though the most valuable part of this book, is the great lengths it goes to teach basic skills ( sautee, bard, stir-fry, taking apart a whole chicken, making stock etc…) that are required to cook consistently good food.
While I was picking up the ingredients for chowder at Safeway, I came across the game hens and decided they would make a good main course. Except for the corn (ended up using organic, canned, whole kernel corn) I used all fresh produce and spices.
For the corn chowder I started off with:
I chowed the pork, and then added the onion and celery. Once the onions were golden brown, I threw in the potatoes, a bay leaf and some water to simmer for about an hour.
After the potatoes were soft, I added some milk and paprika. After some more simmering I added the remaining milk, corn, and some flour. At this point I had to keep a close eye on the soup. Once the milk is in its imperative that you dont let the soup boil or you will scorch the milk.
Soup is done, I have found it tastes best after letting it sit over really low heat for another hour.
For the game hens, I just coated them in melted butter, stuffed them with onions and garlic, and let them cook for about an hour at 350.
All in all everything came out better than I anticipated. The next time I make the chowder I will probably skip the pork, so I can share it with my vegetarian friends.
Leave a Reply