Sweetcorn and Bacon Chowder

Ingredients

• 4 corn cobs, or 500 g frozen sweetcorn
• 150 g smoked bacon lardons
• 400 g potatoes, diced small
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 celery sticks, diced
• 30 g butter
• 25 g plain flour
• 700 ml chicken stock
• 300 ml whole milk
• 100 ml double cream
• a few sprigs of thyme
• a small bunch of chives

Method

1. Use the cobs

   If you have fresh corn, cut the kernels off and then simmer the stripped cobs in the stock for 15 minutes before straining them out. The cobs are full of starch and sweetness and they make the difference between chowder and vegetable soup.

   15 min

2. Render the bacon

   Fry the lardons until crisp, then lift out half for the top and leave the fat in the pan.

   8 min

3. Soften and thicken

   Cook the onion and celery in the bacon fat and butter until soft, then stir in the flour and cook for two minutes.

   10 min

4. Build the body

   Add the stock, milk, potatoes and thyme and simmer until the potato is tender, then add most of the corn and cook five minutes more.

   20 min

5. Blend part of it

   Blend about a third of the soup and stir it back in. Fully blended it becomes a purée; not blended at all it stays thin — a third is the balance that makes it chowder.

   1 min

6. Finish

   Stir in the cream and the remaining corn, season well, and top each bowl with the crisp bacon and chives.