Corn Chowder and Biscuits

It seems that I have a bit of a comfort food theme lately...

I love holidays because it's an occassion for me to pull out all the stops and make everything just-so. I like cooking fancy meals, and making a wide array of desserts and side dishes, but this year was simply too stressful to do all of that. I really wanted to have a simple and relaxing Christmas, so I resisted the urge to complicate everything.

Wanting dinner to be simple without sacrificing any of the deliciousness we all aniticipate with a holiday meal, I decided, after some counsel with my mom, on Corn Chowder and Biscuits. We had never tried the recipe before, but it turned out great, and was so fast and simple.

Read the notes following the recipe to see what I changed.

Corn Chowder

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 bunch fresh celery leaves
3 (15 ounce) cans cream-style corn
1 can whole kernal corn
1 cup water
1 (12 fluid ounce) cans evaporated milk
2 T butter

Place butter in a large stock pot over medium heat. Cook pepper, onion and celery leaves until just tender. Stir in creamed corn, corn and water and bring slowly to a boil, stirring frequently. Stir in milk and heat gently, without boiling. Serve hot.

Notes:
-I did not have celery leaves, so I left them out entirely. Someone said you can use a few teaspoons of celery seed instead, but I haven't tried it.
-My mom has since made this recipe, and she included crumbled bacon on top. She said that it added a lot to the flavor. Our guests were vegetarian, so I didn't do this, but it sounds like it'd be good to me.
-We served it with cheddar cheese and sour cream on top.

I think that the perfect compliment to almost any soup is a good biscuit, which in my experience can be hard to find. Somewhere along the way I heard of a great tip regarding biscuits that I tried on this occassion, and it worked perfectly, resulting in the flakiest home-made biscuits I've ever had. I've included it in the recipe.

Rolled Biscuits
3 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
2 T Baking Powder
1 t Salt
12 T Unsalted Butter, Frozen
1 1/2 C Milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Grate frozen butter (with a cheese grater) into a bowl. Place back into the freezer.
Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cut in the grated butter gently with a pastry cutter or a fork. For easier blending, only add a third of the butter at a time.
Make a well in the center of your flour/butter mixture and add all the milk all at once. Stir just until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently and quickly, about 8 to 10 times, until the dough comes together. Roll out with a floured rolling pin to about 1/2 inch thick.
Cut with a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass, place on an ungreased baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. If desired, rub the tops with butter after removing them from the over.

Notes:
-The secret to flaky biscuits is COLD butter. The colder you can keep your butter, and the less you can handle your dough, the better. Grating the butter is simply a way to incorporate your butter faster and with less handling than the traditional "cutting in" method. And after all, the cutting in is the least fun part of making biscuits anyway. If you want to make your grating even faster, then just whiz it up in the food processor. (That was mom's idea. I have to give credit where credit is due!)
-This made about 20 3 1/2" biscuits. With a smaller cutter, or rolled thinner, you could definitely get a lot more. Also, if your husband isn't stealing the dough to eat every time you turn around, you could get a few more.

I unfortunately didn't get to take pictures of either of these when I made them because I always feel odd taking pictures of food when we have friends over. Next time though, I promise.

The soup is so fast to make, and while it's heating, why not whip up a batch of biscuits? So good, and perfect for a cold winter night. Let me know if you try it!