It’s
so trite to say that something is only as good as the ingredients that
go into it. Everyone knows that, right? It’s just common sense. Except,
there I was, eating a very good bowl of crab and corn chowder that could
have, should have, been very great; but it wasn’t because I didn’t
remembered that old cliché.
As
I mention numerous times in the video, this would ideally be made in
the middle of summer, with ears of fresh, sweet-as-sugar corn. If that’s
not seasonally possible (i.e., you’re doing a Mardi Gras themed recipe
in winter), you can make a perfectly fine version using a
premium-quality, extra-sweet, frozen corn. Or, you can do what I did.
I
used an old bag of budget-brand corn I found in the freezer. The odd
thing is, I’m not sure where it came from, or what it was purchased for.
There are things like vodka and fair-trade coffee beans that somehow
appear in my icebox as if placed there by invisible kitchen gremlins
(btw, that would make a pretty cool name for a band), and I can only
assume that’s how the corn got in there.
So,
while I could have just walked two-blocks, and bought an expensive bag
of something sweet and delicious, I instead went ahead and used a
product that only a prison warden could love. The good news is that even
with the almost-flavorless corn, this chowder was very good, so if you
do as I say, and not as I clichéd, yours will certainly rock.