Description

This Grilled Corn, Pepper and Tomato Chowder recipe has a little kick. I used local poblanos and jalapeños, and was surprised how spicy it was, so be sure to check your poblano and taste for heat. It’s a great way to use up that bumper crop or corn, tomatoes and basil. Slainte!

Ingredients

Units Scale

Grilling ingredients:

6 ears fresh corn on the cob (husks on)
1 yellow or red pepper
2 poblano peppers (you can use all red peppers if you don’t like the heat, 2 large would be plenty)
1 jalapeno pepper

Extra yum:

3 slices of bacon

Chowder start:

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
2 medium Yukon gold potatoes (chopped)
2 large tomatoes (chopped)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (affiliate link)
1 bay leaf
4 cups veg or chicken stock (entire box)

Add ins:

1 cup basil loosely packed (chopped)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup half and half
1–2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar (taste for seasoning)

Garnish:

3 tablespoons chives or green onions (scallions) (finely minced)

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Instructions

Turn the grill to high, trim off tassels and loose husk from corn. Throw the corn and peppers on the hot grill and turn every 10 minutes until husks and skins are charred on all sides, about 25-20 minutes. Remove from grill and let cool in a big bowl.
In a large dutch oven (cast iron or enameled cast iron are such perfect soup pots), cook the bacon until crisp, remove from pan to paper towels to drain and cool. Crumble the bacon and reserve for topping. Omit this step if not using bacon.
Clean out the pot with a paper towel, add oil and heat to medium-high. Add onions and sauté for 5-7 minutes until soft, add garlic and potatoes and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, and scrape up all the slightly charred onion mixture with a flat spoon. (the moisture released from the tomatoes will help scrape up all that flavor goodness.) Add the stock and bay leaf, stir and bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender (taste for tenderness and seasoning as well).
While onion mixture is simmering, shuck the cooled corn and peel the charred skin and remove the seeds from the peppers. Chop the peppers. With a sharp knife, cut the kernels from the corn, once the kernels are off the cob, using the back of your knife (dull side) scrap down the cob to remove the natural corn ‘milk’ to get as much as you can. This adds such a great corn flavor to the chowder, try not to skip this step. Set corn and peppers aside on cutting board.

Notes

Basil often turns a bit black once chopped, so try not to cut it until ready to add to the chowder. An easy way to chop basil (or any leafy veg) is to be sure it’s nice and dry > layer leaves on top of each other > roll it like a cigar > then chop right though it, see, you have little ribbons (or a chiffonade as the fancy folks call it)