sweetcorn chowder with smoked red pepper and crispy bacon

I love chowders. They are creamy thick soups with lots of chunky bits.  They have potato in them, and they hit the comfort food nail right on the head.

I was inspired to make this soup for all of the above reasons and because I love playing around with the smoked red bell pepper I developed recently.  It gets reconstituted into the liquid you put it in, and imparts a delicious smokey flavour.  I added crunchy bacon pieces to give it nice texture and the saltiness this soup needed to balance out the sweet.

This is what you need to make this soup:

• 6 rashers of bacon finely chopped
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk finely chopped
• 1 small leek finely chopped
• 1 x large potato cut into small cubes
• small handful of parley finely chopped
• 4 teaspoons of smoked red pepper (dried and smoked red bell pepper)
• 4 x sweetcorn with kernels cut off the cob
• 400ml water
• 1 Tbs of Nomu chicken fond
• 250ml milk (I used skim)
• 1/2 a tsp of chilli (optional) if you want a bit of heat

How to make this soup:

• fry 4 of the finely chopped bacon rashers until crispy and then set aside
• heat a knob of butter and a splash of olive oil in a pot and fry the onion, celery and leek until soft (about 8 minutes)
• add the remaining 2 rashers of bacon and fry
• add the potato, parsley, 3 of the 4 teaspoons of smoked red pepper, water and stock and cook for 20 minutes
• when the potatoes are soft add the 250ml of milk and the corn and cook for 10 minutes
• you can gently smash the soup with a potato masher to thicken it and release the gluten from the potato
• add the remaining tsp of smoked pepper and salt and pepper to taste (and chilli if you so desire)
• serve with the crispy bacon sprinkled over the top

Thick, sweet, salty and smokey.