No Tea After 12 // Chipotle Corn Chowder

Ottolenghi's Sweetcorn Chowder with Chipotle

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Chipotle Corn Chowder

posted in, Soup on Friday, January 21, 2011

I broke the cardinal tea drinking rule yesterday, I had tea after 12, and by tea I mean a latte and by after 12 I mean 3pm. Result? Awake, mind buzzing wildly until 3am all the while Mr. Taylor snoozing and snoring happily with not a care in the world. As I lay in bed, obsessing about everything and anything under the sun...I somehow ended up on food. Kindof a foregone conclusion, I know, but I've had a marginally crappy week, so I started thinking about my crappy week...from there my brain went straight to "what can we do to make this week less crap?" And then...inevitably, I ended up at cake. Which doesn't exactly bode well for the healthy eating plan and somehow along the way I resolved that tomorrow (today) would be 'screw the cabbage just give me the cake' day. But then, I somehow came back round to knowing that the cake isn't going to help but for a fleeting moment...with just a matter of seconds before it's gone and I'm left with crumbs...and guilt. And this is how my brain works people...terrifying.

Anyway the point is, my brain started with crappy week, somehow got to cake and at some point (much later), I finally fell asleep. And to really throw my madness into overdrive, today I ate neither cabbage or cake, but rather, took hold of my inner Ottolenghi and made a big batch of this spicy slurptastic soup. Go figure. I've been thinking about this soup for a long time so I guess in my defence, it was probably floating around somewhere in the dark and hungry parts of my subconscious. And really, how we got here doesn't matter quite so much as that we did...well I did. And I strongly recommend you do too, as soon as possible.

In other news, I really love corn chowder, you know, the kind laden with bacon, potatoes, cheese and corn (mostly as an afterthought). But hey, as soon as I saw the recipe for this soup, I knew I would like it. What's not to like really? Corn, butternut squash, and smokey chipotle kissed with coriander and lime and dolloped with greek yogurt. The recipe for this soup comes from Yotam Ottolenghi's blog on The Guardian.co.uk website...and I left it mostly unaltered apart from a few small tweaks. It's like corn chowder's skinny blonde sister from another mister.

And I've officially lost it now.

Chipotle Corn Chowder

Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi.

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 shallots
5 cloves garlic, crushed
3 stalks celery, chopped small
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes
14oz / approx 3 cups / 400g butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 bay leaves
3, 1-inch strips lime zest
4 cups / 1 litre water (hot is better)
1 Tablespoon chipotle paste (or 1 whole chipotle chili, rehydrated in boiling water)
approx 2 cups / 300g sweetcorn - you can take corn off the cob if it's in season, but since it's January I used canned. You could also use frozen if that's what you have on hand.
3 limes
1/2 cup / approx 20g fresh coriander
greek yogurt to serve
chopped fresh chilli to serve

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium-sized soup pot. Add the shallots, celery, ground cumin, ground coriander and salt, cook for 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes - just watch the garlic doesn't burn. When the shallots and celery are softened, add the butternut squash, bay leaves, lime zest, chipotle paste (or chopped rehydrated chipotle chilli) and hot water.

Bring the soup to a boil and then turn down and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the butternut squash is soft but not yet fully cooked. Mine only took 5 minutes from boiling point. Add the corn into the pot and cook a further 5 minutes.

When fully cooked, remove the bay leaves and the lime zest, and also remove half of the vegetables from the pot with a slotted spoon and reserve. Whizz up the soup with a hand blender or carefully pour into a large blender - leave room for steam at the top! When the soup is smooth, return to the pan and add the rest of the vegetables. You can put this on a low heat if it needs to be warmed again but it should still be steaming hot.

To serve the soup, ladle into bowls and squirt the juice of half a lime over each bowl. Top with a few tablespoons coriander, fresh chilli and a dollop of greek yogurt. Slurp!

Makes 4-6 servings.