Roasted Corn Chowder

RoastedCorn, a photo by Food Fanatic on Flickr.

When you can't find what you want, sometimes you have to just whip out the knife, open the fridge, and start piling stuff up.

I had 4 leftover ears of roasted corn. They badly needed using. Usually I don't think about making soup-type stuff when it's 90 degrees out, but every once in a while it calls to you. That and the leftovers.

I like use my mandoline to strip corn from the cob. Yes, you can use a knife. If you don't mind flying bits of milky corn everywhere. With a mandoline, you just set depth and slice away. It's really quite slick!

If you don't have fresh corn, don't worry about it. Take frozen corn and push them around in a skillet with a tiny bit of fat, like ghee or oil. You don't want much oil because you don't want to saute, you are really looking for carmelization. I got about 2 1/2 cups of corn off my 4 cobs, so shoot for that amount. Set the corn aside.

First set of ingredients:

2 T Ghee or oil
2 or 3 medium-sized leeks, white and pale green parts, sliced and cleaned
1 small clove garlic, minced

saute until the aromatics are tender.
Add:

2 potatoes, peeled and diced
Milk-enough to just cover the mixture
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp salt
2 or 3 grinds of black pepper
Red Pepper flakes to taste-I used about 1/2 tsp
1 tsp dried basil (Because my mom thinks corn on the cob should be eaten with basil. She's right.)

Bring this to a simmer and allow to cook until potatoes are tender. Then remove the bay leaf and, using an immersion blender or potato masher, mash up the mixture. Leave it a little lumpy. Some might like to take this out of the pot and blend in a blender, but I don't like to do this, as it tends to make the potatoes too starchy.

Add:
Corn kernels
1/2 red bell pepper, diced

Heat through, maybe 5 minutes.

There you go!