Chili Corn Chowder

So, how did the Chili Corn Chowder turn out? Well, let's first talk about the shopping and cooking (notice, I did not say meal preparing) process!

Jamie Oliver's app claims to help me put a delicious meal on the table in about 20 minutes. However, Jamie must not know where I live and who lives with me (little girl who likes to be with mommy all the time). I do appreciate that Jamie believes that "together, we can make a great meal".

Let's talk about the Jamie Oliver 20 Minute Meals App for a second. I've only made one recipe, so keep that in mind, but I'm super impressed. It tells you all the ingredients that you need, allows you to create a shopping list and tells you the supplies that you'll need (which I didn't check first, oops). The best part is the actual step-by-step cooking instructions that include vibrant pictures of each step, and sometimes Jamie even talks to you while you are cooking. Really amazing.

Shopping list:

frozen corn--got it

potato--in the Czech Republic, no problem

vegetable broth--had to call Connie to ask if I could even get it, what it is in Czech (starts with z ends with ovy)

onion--already had one

celery--have only seen it one time in the Czech Republic, and I found it at Macro--30 minutes away; no celery in this corn chowder

fresh red chilis--I got something that was probably more like a small red pepper

butter--no problem

fresh thyme--no fresh thyme at Albert this time, so I went for the dried kind (used google translate in the store to find out what it is in Czech, but didn't have to because the word is very close)

scallions--I wasn't even sure what those are, so I looked them up on google images and found something that looked close, but when I translated the Czech on the label, it said onion bunch (hmmm).

cheddar cheese--just bought some at Macro for a pretty good price; although, you can get it at Albert, you just pay more than one would want to pay for cheddar cheese

sour cream--already had it

olive oil--no problem

black pepper--got it

sea salt--I brought over a huge tub of kosher salt that I'm still using

Cooking:

Like I said, the app's instructions are awesome. Jamie's voice even comes on a few times to give you helpful tips. Every direction has a picture. However, Jamie never had any tips for the little girl that was hitting my butt with a block (like a drum, not like a spanking). I didn't even realize for a few seconds because I was so focused. I also had to deal with: "I wan seee". Cecelia is a talker (I know--shocking), and at one point I made a really scary noise--then, I had to say I was sorry to her!

The only other issue is that the recipe uses a hand blender (who has one of those?). This is used to make the chowder chowdery. I could have used our blender, but it broke that morning (Dear European manufactures, please do not create blender parts out of a flimsy rubbery material. Sincerely, the girl who is embracing life here!) Instead, I used my food processor but had to do it in three stages.

Needless to say, the meal was not on the table in 20 minutes.

Now, for the most important question: how did it taste?





Pretty AMAZING if I do say so myself. Everyone scrapped as much as they could out of their bowls--Cece LOVED it--she just has a harder time getting that last spoonful out of her bowl. Everyone was smiling!