David says when it snows he always thinks about a story that an old friend and mentor told him years ago. Seems the old friend and his son had a small business. One day it snowed pretty hard and the son was in a panic about the snow. "What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?" he asked. The old friend calmly said, "Well son, I am going to put on my pants, one leg at a time, and go to work".
It has snowed about ten inches today and snow is still falling. So as it continues coming down in what is probably the most widespread snowfall I have seen in my life, David calmly put on his pants one leg at a time and left for work. Well, he does have four wheel drive.
Instead of going to work, I decided to stay home and experiment with making soup for supper. I'm practical that way.
Maybe not so practical, I turned on the Christmas lights in the windows. For years, I have left our Christmas lights in the windows year round. I turn them on for Valentine's Day and Birthdays and lots of other special times. Making soup on a snow day is a special time. It's also a special time to acknowledge public servants and everyday heroes like some of the people in the Arizona tragedy. So the lights in the windows are on.
Any winter night is a good night for comfort food like soup, but tonight really fits the bill. Last weekend on the way to a GWU basketball game, we stopped for dinner and had a great bowl of Shrimp and Corn Chowder. I have been thinking about it ever since and picked up several ingredients that I thought I might need to try and duplicate it. So after looking at some chowder recipes online and using the framework of Mama's Cowboy Soup and Daddy's Gravy, I have made up my own version of Spicy Shrimp and Corn Chowder.
It's not as complicated as it looks and it really turned out great. We like it spicy and this really was but you can use your own judgement about the amount of spices. I think we may need some snow cream to cool us off.
Sally's Spicy Shrimp and Corn Chowder
Ingredients:
1 lb raw shrimp - thawed, peeled and deveined, I used small shrimp and left them whole. If you are using jumbo shrimp, cut into bite sized pieces
1 Bag Home Frozen Corn - cooked (If you don't have this use 1 can of corn, drained)
3-4 slices bacon, cut into bite sized pieces. (Sister taught me to cut bacon before frying which makes it easier to fry if you plan to crumble it up anyway. Just stir around in the pan as it cooks.)
1 onion, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
A little garlic - 2 cloves minced or a dash or two of powdered
About 3 TBSP plain flour
About 4 cups Seafood broth (chicken or vegetable broth would work too)
About 2 cups whole milk
3 cups diced potatoes (I used white but red would be good too)
1-2 tbsp butter
1 Bay leaf
Cayenne Pepper - several generous shakes
Thyme, Black Pepper, White Pepper, and Salt - to taste.
for spices I start with 1/4 - 1/2 tsp then adjust after it cooks a bit.
Tabasco - I used texas pete this time and put a generous tablespoon full
Lemon juice, Worchestershire Sauce - start with a few drops and adjust if needed
Parsley - several generous shakes
Old Bay Seasoning - one good shake
Directions:
In a large pot, saute bacon bits. Remove bacon and pour off all but about 1 tbsp grease. Reserve bacon bits for garnish.
Saute onion, garlic, celery, pepper, and carrot in bacon grease for about 5 mins.
Add flour and stir until browned to make a roux - a couple of minutes
Add broth a little at a time to make a soupy gravy.
Add milk, spices, butter and potatoes. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add a little more broth if needed.
Add cooked corn.
Add Shrimp and cook until shrimp are pink - just a few minutes.
Put into soup bowls and garnish with bacon bits and extra parsley.
This is great with toasted garlic bread and a tossed salad.
We thought it was thick enough, but if you want it thicker just make a little more gravy. Put about 2 tbsps of butter into a saucepan and add 2 tbsp flour. Brown and then add a little broth. Stir gravy into the soup to thicken.
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