The Second Life of Corn Chowder

I don’t know why I had such a limited view of corn usage. Corn = grilled corn on the cob. That’s all. But then I let it pop and brown in hot oil and butter and threw it in with kale and roasted tomatoes for a salad.

I bought another four ears but did not have a plan of attack. And then I saw a corn chowder recipe over at Macheesmo. I never made corn chowder before, and I’m pretty sure I hadn’t followed a recipe all summer, so as the unofficial end of warmth approached last week, I fell in line and replicated a proper summer soup.

With the leftovers, however, I refused to simply reheat. Instead, I recreated a hotter, fattier soup and a slightly soggy frittata.

Corn Chowder Frittata

I think I botched this up, as I rushed to the broiler instead of letting the egg cook longer in the oven. I whipped one egg with hot sauce, salt and pepper. Then poured that over corn chowder leftovers, stirred it together and put the entire mixture into a pre-heated, buttered cast iron pan. Then I added sliced tomato to the top, with more salt and pepper and then slid it under the broiler. And waited and waited and waited. The mixture browned nicely on the top, but remained slightly soggy in the middle. I think cooking this in the oven for 15-20 minutes and then finishing in the oven, with a late addition of crumbled feta on top, would have worked better.

Extra Thick Corn Chowder

While the original corn soup produced a light broth (even with the addition of heavy cream), I decided to mess with the texture to add some zip to the leftovers. I started with a roux (aggressively whisking roughly equal parts melted butter and flour together until smooth), then poured the soup into the pot, stirred, and added a few dashes of hot sauce and apple cider vinegar, and a few white beans. 80P pointed out an abundance of vinegar, and wished I had stopped at the hot sauce, but I thought the tang was quite pleasant.

Nonetheless, I hope you find inspiration that a bowl of humble chowder can turn into, well, another soup and a mostly appetizing baked egg dish. Or please tell me what I should have done with those leftovers.