This thick, hearty, rich and tasty this corn chowder is made even more delicious with the addition of sweet plump prawns.

You can always tell the cooler weather is here when chowders start popping up on restaurant and pub menu’s. Thick, creamy, and packed full of delicious ingredients, chowders are the ultimate in soup indulgence for me. I love a chowder that is a real rib-sticker. One that almost requires a fork.

My favourite chowder memory is from a winter holiday we had many years ago. On a drizzly, blustery day we ventured out to explore our surroundings. We bravely took a ferry ride to a little township over the estuary, which chilled us right to the bone. On the other side we came across a warm and inviting pub with a blazing fire and a menu full of perfect winter warmers. I ordered the seafood chowder without hesitation and it came served in a huge cob loaf smothered with garlic butter. It was amazing! I ate every scrap, including the loaf.

Since that holiday I’ve been experimenting with various chowder combinations to find one that can compete with that memory. This sumptuous corn chowder with prawns really delivers.

This is a surprisingly straight forward soup to put together. I like to keep a bag of shelled prawns in the freezer for recipes just like this one so theres no mucking around peeling prawns. The prawns are added just a few minutes before serving so you can actually make it soup well ahead and reheat it gently before adding the prawns.

This corn chowder with prawns is sweet with beautiful corn, thick and rich with potato, and warm with the gentle spice of tumeric and just a hint of cayenne pepper. I can’t seem to locate a cob loaf to serve it in, so have had to settle for crusty ciabatta on the side. Just as delicious but not quite as fun!

Yum

Print

Corn chowder with prawns

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  40 mins

Total time:  50 mins

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 500g prawns
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 2 leeks, finely sliced (white parts only)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• ½ tsp tumeric
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• 750ml chicken or fish stock
• 600g potatoes, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
• 250ml milk
• 2 cans corn kernels
• 250ml cream
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley

Instructions

1. Defrost the prawns then chop into 1cm pieces. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan or stock pot and add the onion. Cook gently for 2-3 minutes until softened.
3. Add the leeks to the pot and cook, stirring regularly, for 5 minutes or until softened.
4. Add the garlic, tumeric and thyme leaves to the pot and stir for 1 minute, then add the stock, potato and milk.
5. Drain and rinse the corn kernels and add these to the pot as well.
6. Bring the soup to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes until the potato is cooked.
7. Remove 2 cups of the soup from the pot and set aside. Using a heat-proof stick blender, puree the remaining soup until very smooth. Return the unblended soup to the pot.
8. Stir in the prawns, cream and cayenne pepper and heat gently for 3-4 minutes until the prawns are pink and cooked.
9. Stir through the flat leaf parsley and serve.

Notes

If you dont have a stick blender you can puree the soup using a blender. Set aside 2 cups of soup then carefully pour the rest into the blender and blend until smooth, then return to the pot. Be very careful if you puree it this way as the soup will be extremely hot.

Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

3.5.3208