Corn Wild Rice And Ham Or Smoked Sausage Chowder |
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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 45 Minutes |
Ready In: 45 Minutes Servings: 6 |
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It is COLD in the Chicago area, so I was in the mood for a bowl of hearty soup. We were snowed out of our baby visits until tomorrow, so we spent the afternoon in the kitchen whipping up some stick-to-your-ribs food. Read more . With a total of another 10 inches of snow on the ground today, I was more than happy to sit inside the house and eat my soup while I only LOOKED outside and didn't have to be in it! Ingredients:
5 cups chicken stock (may need more) |
⅓ cup wild rice (i have used the quick cooking wild rice and it's good) |
2 cups frozen corn, divided |
1 tablespoon peanut oil |
3 to 4 ounces fully-cooked ham or smoked sausage, cut into cubes (or diced cooked chicken breast) |
6 medium mushrooms |
1 small onion, diced quite finely |
2 celery stalks, sliced thinly |
1 carrot, peeled and diced or grated |
1/2 to 1 cup half-and-half (depending on how creamy you want your soup) note: low-fat or fat-free half-and-half work very well in this |
roux for thickening (equal parts melted butter and flour mixed into a paste) |
crushed cheese croutons or cheese crackers for topping, optional |
Directions:
1. Bring 3 cups of stock to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Rinse the wild rice in a colander several times; drain well and then add rinsed rice to the simmering stock.
3. Simmer until all liquid evaporates and the rice is tender – this will take close to an hour (do not cover the pan, and add more stock if liquid evaporates before rice is done).
4. While rice is cooking, blend 1/2 cup of the corn with 3/4 cup of stock in a blender or processor until it forms an almost smooth puree.
5. Heat oil in a heavy Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat; add cubed sausage and sauté until it just begins to brown (NOTE: if you are using ham, omit this step and simply add the cubed ham to the soup when you add the wild rice, etc); remove sausage from pot so you can sauté the veggies.
6. Add mushrooms and sauté until browned nicely and most of the moisture is removed.
7. Add onions, celery and carrots, sautéing until onions are translucent.
8. Add remaining stock and bring the soup to a simmer.
9. Reduce heat to low and simmer soup gently for 15 minutes.
10. Add the cooked wild rice, the corn puree, remaining whole corn kernels, and simmer very gently for another 15 minutes.
11. Add half-and-half to soup, thin with more stock if needed, and season to taste with salt and pepper. You will probably need a bit more seasoning if using chicken, to make up for the loss of the smokey, salty flavor from the sausage or ham. McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning is a good seasoning for this.
12. Thicken chowder with roux (I used about 2 tablespoons for a thinner chowder, or 4 tablespoons for a thicker one).
13. Serve with some crushed cheese croutons or cheese crackers (such as Nips) for topping each bowl.
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