* Corn and Shellfish Chowder

The sun is shining - for now - and I wasn't in the mood for anything too heavy for lunch, so I made chow-dah! It was also a good excuse to use the three cobs of corn that I'd bought because they'd screamed "BUY ME!" as I walked past them outside the greengrocers yesterday.

I did try to leave them there, but the guilt was too much for any one loan food shopping addict to bare - so I succumbed. Which was fun. Especially when I had to literally beg the fridge to allow to me wedge something else inside it.

Anyway... back to the "I didn't want anything too heavy for lunch..." 

To me, anything that doesn't have bread of any kind with it, isn't heavy. Even if you can cut a soup with a knife and use it as sandwich spread - it isn't heavy. Eeeeven if you can serve it up with an ice cream scoop in perfect little chow-dah balls, reminiscent of your mum's mashed potato in the 1970's... it isn't heavy.

It's soup...

... how can it be heavy?

Thankfully, this soup falls just shy of being able to stand your spoon up in it.

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Corn and Shellfish Chowder Recipe

Serves 4

Prep time - 10 minutes

Cooking time - 20 minutes
Total time - 30 minutes

You will need

A medium saucepan

A blender or food processor

a small frying pan/skillet

Ingredients

25g butter

1 small onion - chopped

350g sweetcorn (drained if from a tin, defrosted if frozen) - I used 3 large fresh cobs, kernels removed

700ml milk

2 spring onions finely chopped

115g of cooked prawns

175g white crab meat

150ml single cream

pinch of paprika

salt and pepper

Method

Reserve 2 heaped tbsp of the sweetcorn.

Melt the butter in the saucepan and gently fry the onion for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the sweetcorn and milk and bring to a boil - keep an eye on it, it's MILK! Turn down to a simmer immediately and cover with a tight fitting lid. Simmer for 5 minutes. 

Put the soup through the blender and blend until smooth(ish). The return to the pan along with the prawns, crab meat, cream and paprika. Reheat gently over a low heat.

Place the reserved sweetcorn in a small frying pan, and dry fry over a low heat until golden and toasted.

Season the soup with salt and pepper and serve garnished with the toasted sweetcorn and chopped spring onion.