Potato and Corn Chowder

For our LifeGroup tonight I made a Potato and Corn Chowder. I am always a little hesitant about serving a meatless dish to a crowd. One just never knows how said crowd will respond as we have no vegetarians in our group that I know of. It got rave reviews and I'm confident it will be making multiple appearances in our fall/winter menu. I didn't think to get pictures and there was only about a serving left in the pot when I thought of it. So sorry. Here is the recipe:


Potato and Corn Chowder
adapted from Paula Dean's Chef Jack's Corn Chowder
Ingredients

9 cups chicken stock (ours was home made of course, yum!)

4 cups half-and-half 

6 cups white corn kernels, fresh or frozen, we used corn fresh off the cob plus frozen, save the cobs 

1 cup all-purpose flour 

2-3   cloves garlic, minced 

2   small celery stalks, chopped 

2-3   small carrots, chopped

1   small onion, diced 

1/2 red pepper, chopped

3 red potatoes, chopped

2 cup (4 sticks) butter 

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg 

Salt and pepper

cayenne pepper

Directions

Melt 2 sticks of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot, celery, red pepper, potatoes, and garlic, and saute for 2 minutes.  Add the flour and stir to make a roux.  Cook until the roux is lightly browned; set aside to cool to room temperature.  Meanwhile, combine the corn (off the cob), corn cobs (broken in half) and chicken stock in a saucepan, and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the vegetables and roux to the pot with the corn and broth, stir well to prevent clumping.  Bring to a boil.  The mixture should become very thick.  In a small saucepan, gently heat the half-and-half; stir it into the thick corn mixture.  Add the nutmeg, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to taste.  Just before serving, remove the corn cobs and cut the remaining sticks of butter into large chunks.  Add it to enrich the soup, stirring until the butter melts. 

I thought about garnishing with cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions (not my thing, but some people like them) but just didn't get that part done. I may try that next time. The flavor was fantastic. This served 7 adults and 7 kids (ages 10 or 11 to 1, mostly boys) as the main dish.