Roasted Corn and Pepper Chowder

One of the things I crave at nearly every meal is substance. Substance in ingredients. Substance in taste. Substance in texture.

Being a decidedly vague concept, I have always struggled to define it. Most of us defines ‘substance’ with words like ‘hearty’, ‘soulful’, ‘made with love’, ‘born out of quality’, etc.

But let’s ask the hard question: can those dishes be made under less favorable conditions? Can a dish with extreme depth in taste be made out of poor ingredients? Can a dish with texture resembling that of mashed-and-boiled pea possess great taste? Must everything that’s vegan contain the least possible amount of fat possible?

It turned out that we have many presumptions with the food we eat—as in, a dish that has A must have a B texture, C taste and D nutrition, while the reality is often not so.

Many dish I had do not lose their magic just because one of the elements are lacking. If you think of them as people, these are folks who continue to thrive when life turns hard and often demonstrate positive qualities otherwise not found when situations are favorable.

That’s substance. Go forth and make this dish using anything you can find in your kitchen. It’s full of flavorful ingredients, or those that are about to get flavored by roasting.

Ingredients

1. Corn on the cob—more than you think you’d need, because a) we’d only use the kernels in the recipe, and b) a roasted corn chowder should be primarily composed of corn
2. Red pepper—between ⅛–¼ as much as the corn
3. Red onions
4. Garlic
5. Vegetable stock—less than you think you’d need
6. Salt & pepper
7. A blender

Steps

1. Prepare your grill. I don’t have one, so I simply use a roasting rack put over a medium heated stovetop (the one with fire.)
2. Prepare your ingredients. Corn husks should be removed, garlic peeled, and vegetable stock warmed. The red pepper can remain whole.
3. Grill vegetables. Here are things to look for: corn and garlic should mostly be charred but not burnt, but red pepper’s skin should be burnt (slowly, of course.)
4. Remove vegetables from the grill, and prepare accordingly: Garlic is the one that gets the coldest quickest, so start with cutting them roughly.
5. Red onion is next: cut them in little squares—too big, and you risk having unblended piece in the soup.
6. Red pepper is next: after you get it off the grill, put in a plate and cover this plate with a bowl. After five minute or so, the skin will loosen, leaving you with a rich, red, roasted pepper. Cut it into little squares.
7. Corn can go last because they cool slowly: stand their larger butt-ends on a plate, and then cut vertically down on all sides. The plates will catch the kernel, leaving you at the end of the process with a cleaned corn, and a hopefully unburnt hand (I speak from experience.)
8. Save some of the peppers and corns to give the final dish garnish and texture variety
9. Remember the stock we warmed earlier? It should be boiling right about now. Put the vegetables in, season with salt and pepper, then cook for 5 minutes.
10. Put this mixture in the blender. Go ahead and start slow before going to the absolute highest RPM possible. We’re looking for a smooth, creamy consistency similar to that of a cream of mushroom soup (recipe forthcoming), rather than a chunky goulash.
11. Put the blended soup back into the saucepan. Add more stock if you like. Check seasoning.
12. Stir in the reserved roasted red peppers and corn kernels just before serving. Savor.

Caveat

Your roasting surface will darken with stains that look impossible to remove. Don’t despair. Soak the roasting grid in hot water the entire time you’re eating the meal, and wash along with the dishes afterwards for easy char cleanup.