Potato & Corn Chowder

I've really been on a soup making kick lately. I feel like I've figured out how to make soup without really following a recipe. So for an easy Saturday night supper, when Nick requested potato soup, I opted for a good ol' corn chowder.

Here's how to make it:

Ingredients:
3 strips of bacon (I used chicken bacon)
a splash of olive oil
1 medium onion
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
a pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
3 medium yukon gold potatoes (washed and diced)
1/2 cup of white wine
3/4 carton of stock (chicken or veggie)
2 cups of corn (fresh or frozen), divided
a splash of cream (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
1 chopped scallion (for garnish)

*serves 2 - 3 (for a bigger batch I would double the recipe)

Method:
Chop bacon into small pieces and cook until crisp. Remove from the pot. If you use regular bacon, you may want to drain off some of the fat (chicken bacon doesn't yield much fat, so at this point I added a splash of olive oil). Cook the onions and garlic with the red pepper flakes until soft. Add in the diced potatoes and let them brown a little bit. Add the white wine and cook down for a few minutes. Next, pour in the stock (enough to cover the potatoes). Simmer until potatoes are tender.

While the potatoes are simmering, I take one cup of the corn, and blitz it in my food processor until it's almost pureed. Set aside.

Once potatoes are soft, spoon out 2/3 of the potatoes (it's ok if some broth and onions come along) into the food processor and puree those as well. Now add the pureed potatoes and pureed corn back to the pot (where the remaining potato chunks and stock are waiting). This thickens the soup without flour and gives more corn flavour throughout. Add the second cup of corn (kernels) and bring the soup back to a simmer. If you want, add a splash of cream at this point. Add salt/pepper to taste.

Pour into bowls and garnish with the bacon bits, a few kernels of corn, and scallions.

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