Potato Corn Chowder

I'm sure I've written about Claire's Corner Copia before on this blog...heaven knows, I tell everyone about my favorite New Haven restaurant. No trip to see Emily is complete without many, many meals eaten at this lovely vegetarian establishment. Let's face it - the restaurant would have to be pretty amazing to make me love and crave vegetarian, organic and downright HEALTHY foods.

Every soup Claire makes is amazing but my favorite is probably her potato corn chowder. One of my recurring "calgon take me away" daydreams involves sitting at my favorite table in the restaurant, looking out on falling snow in New Haven, and eating that soup, along with one of the fresh mini bread loaves that are served with all Claire's soups.

Tonight I decided to make my own potato corn chowder using Claire's recipe. The results are yummy but troubling. Once I finished with my batch, I decided to see how much it looked like Claire's. Now, isn't it a good thing that I'm enough of a nut job to take pictures of all the foods I've eaten in Claire's over the years? Sure, it makes my daughter want to disappear under the tables but, having that visual record of my favorite foods comes in handy once in awhile. The trouble came when I looked up my latest photo of Claire's corn chowder, taken just a few weeks ago during my most recent visit to New Haven. I think ole' Claire is holding out on me cause her picture shows some kind of orange component in the soup...carrots?...that isn't listed in the recipe ingredient list. How can I possibly be expected to duplicate the perfect tastes of Claire's soups if she won't give me the complete ingredient list?

Even without the mystery orange blobs, this soup was pretty darned good, especially on a chilly October evening in San Diego.  Now if I could just look out my windows and see snow falling!

Potato Corn Chowder
Recipe from Claire's Corner Copia

8 tbs butter, cut into pieces
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cups chopped parsley
Corn kernels cut from 6 ears or 2 cups frozen kernels
6 large potatoes, diced
1 quart water
1/4 tsp. dried dill weed
1 quart milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp dried thyme
salt to taste
1 tsp black pepper

Melt the butter over low heat in an uncovered pot. Add the onion, garlic, parsley, corn, and potatoes. Cover and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the water and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Stir in the dill week, milk, cream, thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring frequently for 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning.

Creamy Cheesy Potatoes

If it seems like I make a lot of potato side dishes - I do. Virginia's recipe is the most popular but Martin likes anything involving potatoes so I stay on the lookout for variations that will change things up a little.

These are kind of a cross between escalloped and fries. What I really like about the recipe is that no cream of anything soups are involved and you start with a real potato versus frozen hash browns. Also, if you bake these correctly, they have a wonderful crunchy, cheesy taste on the bottom. It's that crusty bottom everyone wants to pick at out of the pan - or am I the only one who likes those bottom and side crunchies as much as the dish itself????

Another plus for this recipe - I get to use my cute potato slicer from the Vermont Country Store. Hundreds of dollars invested in a food processor,  and a state of the art (translation: expensive) mandolin...and yet, my gadget of choice is a ridiculously basic contraption that lets me crank out perfect french fry logs with one hard push on the whole potato.

Creamy Cheesy Potatoes

About 5 large potatoes
1 pint whipping cream
salt and pepper
2 tsp. parsley flakes
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1. Cut the potatoes into thin french fry strips and lay the fries in a 9 x 13 pan.
2. Pour all the of the cream over the top of the fries. Salt and pepper them generously.
3. Sprinkle at least 2 cups grated cheddar cheese over the top. Sprinkle parsley flakes on top of the cheese.
4. Cover with foil and poke a fork through the top of the foil, 2 or 3 times to allow a little steam to escape.
5. Cook at 400 degrees for about 1 hour, 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Place your oven rack in the middle of the oven. During the last 15 or 20 minutes of baking lower your rack one more step. This makes the bottom of the potatoes brown and crispy.

Petite Pumpkin Donuts

Maybe I need to start a new blog devoted to all things pumpkin, based on my last entries for this one. Yea, it would definitely seem that the lack of fall weather here in sunny San Diego has made me a bit crazed for whatever manufactured feeling of seasons I can whip up.

Tonight was the first time small group has met in my house since last May when we disbanded for the summer. Actually, I don't believe we qualify for the name "small group" anymore as our numbers seem to have grown to the point of looking more like a small church! There were 17 in attendance this evening and that leaves out one couple and one half of another couple who were unable to attend this week. I've seen first service at church have less people than the amount crammed into my house tonight!

Sherry was the designated snack bringer but I decided I'd use a captive audience of eaters to try out the pumpkin mini-donuts I've been wanting to bake since returning from New Haven. The donuts almost didn't get made when I wound up spending a big chunk of time this afternoon in a line at the local UPS place, only to find out they wanted EIGHTY SEVEN DOLLARS to mail Emily's featherweight science poster.  Nothing to do but politely take back the unwieldy box, get in the car, and head to the post office where a "mere" 40 bucks was enough to send the poster on it's way to Yale. It's usually not my style to still be taking stuff out of the oven as guests arrive, though that's just about what ended up happening with my contribution to tonight's snack table.

I'm glad I went ahead with making the donuts. I'd forgotten how enjoyable it can be to watch people appreciate foods that veer wildly off the narrow path of accepted Stoops eats. It was downright gratifying to watch people pop a donut in their mouths and immediately want another because they tasted so good.

Other than the one Funston gobbled up as soon as it fell on the floor while I was taking them out of the pan, there was exactly one more left-over after the last guest filed out of my kitchen. With little more manners than Funston, I ate the lone left-over and then wished I'd done as one lady suggested and saved my little savory for morning tea.


Petite Pumpkin Spice Donuts
Makes 24 mini donuts
Recipe Courtesy of Blue Eyed Bakers

For Donuts:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk

For Coating:
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1-2 tablespoons cinnamon (more if you're a cinnamon lover)

Preheat oven 350 F.  Butter a mini donut pan and set aside.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixture and stir until just combined, careful not to over mix.

Using a pastry bag or a steady hand and a spoon, fill each donut cup with the batter.  The donut cups should be fairly full, but not overflowing. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until donuts spring back when gently pressed (if you're using a larger donut pan, allow them to bake for 12-15 minutes).  Turn donuts out onto a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes.

While the donuts are cooling, melt butter in one bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon in another.  When donuts are still hot (but not too hot to touch), quickly dip each donut in melted butter, then coat in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Serve immediately.

*Note: If you're not going to serve the donuts immediately, you can bake them up to a day in advance and store them in an airtight container.  Do not coat them in the butter/cinnamon-sugar mixture until just before serving or they may get soggy.

You can also adapt this recipe for mini muffins.  Just bake muffins for 10-12 minutes then follow the same procedure for coating.