Corn & Sausage Chowder

One of the advantages of growing up in northern Wisconsin was being able to take your prom date to a good supper club and have a cup of clam chowder before the steak appeared.  Although I discovered that I liked it, the chowder was first an act of rebellion:  My mother did not make clam chowder.

Chowder was made with clams, and they were slimy things unlike those delicious bass, bluegills, bullheads, northerns, walleyes and trout that she cleaned and cooked for us hundreds of times.

She did, however, make lots of soups and stews that probably should have been called chowders.  Chowders are thickened soups or stews usually made with milk or cream.  Traditional clam chowder is thickened with crushed crackers or ship’s biscuit.

I’ve never eaten ship’s biscuit, but I have eaten stewed tomatoes thickened with crackers to the consistency of a chowder.  Pretty tasty, especially if some green peppers and onion are simmered with the tomatoes.

There are vegetable chowders made with various combinations of corn, carrots, onions, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.  Over the years, Mom made versions of all of these.  Some of them were pretty good.

Besides clams, there are chowders made with cod, salmon, crab, shrimp and chicken, most with onions for flavor and potatoes to help with the thickening.  I haven’t found the recipe yet, but there is probably a Carnivore Chowder that omits all vegetables to emphasize the meat.

Here is a chowder that combines meat and vegetables.  It is one of my favorites because it is so easy to make and also lets me virtuously declare that I ate mostly vegetables for dinner.

INGREDIENTS:
3 large or 4 medium white potatoes
1 1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. dried marjoram
3 cups water
3/4 lb. pork sausage
1 small onion, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. chopped
1 15 oz. can whole kernel corn
1 15 oz. can creamed corn
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup water
2 T flour
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Hot sauce (optional)

PROCEDURE:

Peel and dice the potatoes into bite-sized pieces.  You want about six cups of the diced potatoes.  Peel and finely chop the onion.  You should have about 3/4 cup.

Combine the potatoes, salt, marjoram, and water in a Dutch oven or soup pot. Boil until the potatoes begin to get tender.  Remove the pot from the heat unless you are ready to assemble the chowder.  Do not drain the potatoes; the flavored potato water is the base of the broth.

While the potatoes are boiling, cook the sausage over medium heat in a skillet, breaking the meat into smaller pieces with a spatula or wooden spoon.  Add the chopped onion when the sausage is nearly done and continue cooking until the onion is translucent.

Do not brown the meat or onion.  If there is more than a tablespoon of fat in the pan, drain off the excess, add the meat and onions to the potatoes and return the pot to the heat.

Stir in both cans of corn and the half and half.  Mix the flour with the half cup of water and stir it into the soup.  Add the pepper, stir and bring the chowder to a simmer and cook gently for three or four minutes.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Add some hot sauce or more pepper if you like.  Serve with good bread and a salad.

NOTES:  This recipe makes six generous servings.  The chowder is excellent warmed up for lunch a day or two later.

Finnish Macaroni and Beef

When I was a District Exchange Officer for Rotary districts in Minnesota and Wisconsin, I helped coordinate exchanges for students coming to our area from Finland and students from Minnesota and Wisconsin going to Finland.  It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot.  For instance, I learned right away why Finnish students were amused by Minnesota’s slogan, “The land of 10,000 lakes.”  Finland has over 187,000 lakes!

Once a year my wife and I invited the exchange Students from Finland in our Rotary Districts to spend a weekend at our home.  Since the students were living in cities that could be more than 100 miles apart, we tried to make the weekend an opportunity for students to get better acquainted.

The rules were simple.  Students could speak Finnish as much as they wished.  My wife cooked Friday dinner and I made breakfast Saturday and Sunday.  The students could make whatever they wanted for lunch and dinner Saturday and a final snack at Sunday noon.  My job was to get the ingredients they needed.

We had a lot of fun together and enjoyed many of their favorite recipes, some of which had been sent via airmail from mothers and grandmothers in Finland.

One popular dish nearly every year was Lihamakaronilaatikko (Lee-hah-mah-cah-row-nee-lah-tee-ko), which is a Finnish version of a macaroni and hamburger hot dish.  Instead of a tomato-based sauce with mixed vegetables,  a cream sauce.   This is comfort food for a cold winter evening.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups uncooked macaroni
1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion
1 T vegetable oil
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/2  cup grated Swiss or Jack cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
3 T. butter

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Finely chop the onion . Heat the oil in a saucepan and brown the ground beef over moderate heat.  When the meat is nearly done, add the onion and continue cooking until the onion is translucent.  Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon white pepper.   Drain the meat if necessary.

Boil the macaroni in salted water until a bit more than half cooked.  Drain the macaroni and mix it with the beef, then pour the mixture into a greased oven casserole.

Grate the cheese and beat the eggs until they are lemon yellow.  Add the milk, grated cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon white pepper.  Mix well and pour over the macaroni-beef mixture.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs and add a few small pieces of butter on the surface.  Cover and cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, remove the cover and continue cooking for another half hour or until the batter has set.

NOTES.  Like many other Scandinavian dishes, this is a white mildly spiced dish.  Ketchup is the condiment of choice, so put the ketchup bottle on the table when you serve Lihamakaronilaatikko.  Some versions are made with beef broth, but our student guests preferred this recipe.