Corn Chowder and potato chips…

The two chowders (potato and fish) were a big hit with my daughter and so last week I made some more.  This time, I made a corn chowder…

I pulled out my beloved mortar and pestle and ground up the herbs and a variety of spices. Once that was finished, I set the freshly ground spices into a small stainless steel bowl and ground up my garlic and ginger until it made a smooth paste. I set that aside.

And cut the corn off the cob. The corn was freshly picked and really sweet. This would be a mildly sweet chowder.

I still had some of the shitake mushrooms that Kenny of Veggie Gardening Tips had given to me, and so I chopped them up and added to the corn chowder. We love mushrooms…

I put everything into my pressure cooker and cooked with the lid off for about ten minutes. The corn and mushrooms were added two minutes before I turned it off.  The chowder smelled divine and filled the kitchen with its delightful aroma.

The freshness of the ingredients added extra flavor to the chowder. You won’t find that in your store bought processed chowders.  The chowder I served did not last too long, but since I’d set aside eight cups of the chowder, to put in the freezer, there was more for other days.

Chowder makes awesome comfort food. To accompany the chowder I also made potato chips. My daughter had been craving something crunchy. I normally bake my potato chips, but this time I pan fried them in a skillet.

I could have used my Mandoline slicer to neatly slice the potatoes, but I opted to chop the potatoes finely with a knife and toss them into the skillet. These potatoes came from our garden.

Once the chips were brown, I laid them on paper towels. I blotted off the excess oil. In the above picture, I’d made about three layers of chips. You can only see the top layer. I ground up some sea salt in my mortar and pestle and placed that in a tiny condiment bowl for my daughter. I had already made a homemade ketchup so I brought that out too.

The homemade potato chips turned out crisp, crunchy, and much better than any store bought chip I’ve had. Since I made them myself, they are much healthier and devoid of the extra junk our bodies do not need.