Arlene’s awesome corn chowder

Arlene Shiratori Wong of Travel Products Hawaii claims she doesn’t cook much, but when she does, it’s really good! She let us try her corn chowder recently and it was addicting.

(Personal note from Melissa: I don’t like chowders where the potato chunks are too large. Here, she diced the potatoes very small, so the consistency was very even.)

Ingredients
2 cans of sweet corn
1 pkg. bacon, divided
¼ cup diced onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
3 Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced
4 cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups heavy cream
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Dice 1 package of bacon; saute. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of the fat and add onion and garlic to the pan and saute until transparent but not brown. Add the corn, potato, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter over medium heat in a separate saute pan. Add flour, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring until mixture begins to loosen slightly. Let cool.
3. Add the cooled butter/flour mixture to the simmering broth, mixing with a whisk. Stir often to keep from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Simmer 30 to 40 minutes.
4. Add the cream and simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, cook the remaining bacon until crisp. Drain and chop bacon into small pieces; set aside.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with garnish of bacon.

She served it to us with cornbread, which really made this a meal. While this recipe calls for “milk,” Arlene says the secret to this recipe is actually using almond milk instead of regular dairy!

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
4 cups Bisquick
1 tsp. baking powder or baking soda
½ cup cornmeal
4 large eggs
2 blocks butter, melted
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour 9 X 13 inch-pan
   In a large bowl, combine and mix all dry ingredients
   In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients together. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in wet mixture. Mix by hand and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 mins