Sausage Chowder

 

 

The tree and decorations are down, the temperature is dropping, a cold rain may turn to ice overnight…the reality that the holidays are over and winter itself still lies ahead has hit me.  I need comfort food!  As long as the weather holds, I plan on sharing a comforting soup, stew or chowder with you on Saturdays.  And the bonus for myself—I’s going to scour through my all-too-large cookbook collection and select all new ones to try.  I’ll share first opinions and brainstorm how I might tweak the recipe in the future.  I might be using the pressure cooker, slow cooker or just a Dutch oven on the stove.  Here’s my first—Sausage Chowder.

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound fully cooked smoked sausage
• 1 med. onion, quartered & thinly sliced
• 4 cups diced potatoes
• 3 cups water
• 2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can cream-style corn
• 1 can evaporated milk

Directions

Cut sausage in half lengthwise and then thinly slice.  Brown the sausage and onion over medium heat in a soup kettle or Dutch oven.

Add potatoes, water, parsley, basil, salt and pepper to pot.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender. Add canned ingredients.  Cook another 5-10 minutes until heated through. Yield: about 3 quarts of chowder – you’ll have to judge the number of servings depending on whether you use this as a main dish or an appetizer.

Family Reaction:

You can see I already tweaked the recipe because all I had in the house was kielbasa instead of smoked sausage.  Rather than use a Dutch oven, I cooked it all in my Ninja 3-in-1, which has a stovetop setting.  Everyone loved the taste.  My husband would have liked it to be a little thicker—maybe I’ll cut down on the water.  I’m including a picture of my diced potatoes.  For their size a 15-20 minute simmer was too long, they were too mushy.  Another thought is to mash them slightly to thicken the dish before I add the corn.  A sprinkling of cheese when serving would go well too.