Charming Chowder

Classic sweet corn and mussel chowder

Serves: 4

Preparation: 7-10 minutes

Cooking: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients

• 30ml olive oil
• 100g bacon, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 4 ears of sweet corn
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
• 1 litre vegetable or fish stock
• 1kg live mussels, washed and de-bearded, or 400g local frozen half-shell mussels
• 100ml thawed cream
• 30ml fresh parsley, finely chopped salt and cracked pepper to season

Method

• Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium-low heat, add bacon, onion, celery and chilli, and sweat for 5 minutes – until soft, not browned
• Peel husks from sweet corn and slice off kernels with sharp knife
• Add sweet corn and potatoes to saucepan, along with stock
• Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are soft
• Blitz roughly with hand blender, add mussels and cream
• Bring to the boil and cook for a few minutes until mussels have opened
• If using local frozen half-shell mussels, add now and cook for 1-2 minutes
• Remove from heat and season well with salt and pepper
• Serve piping hot, garnished with freshly chopped parsley

Chef’s tip:

To avoid teary eyes when slicing the onions, pop them in the freezer (the onions, not your eyes) for about 20 minutes before you begin. Super-cold onions are much slower to release those tear-jerker fumes.