Smoky corn chowder with prawns

What do you get when you mix prawns, bacon and corn? Indulgent deliciousness, that's what. 

I never made chowder before. I found the recipe on Pinterest (where else?) and impulsively decided I need chowder in my life. And after making it this week I can definitely say this: I need chowder in my life. Like, every day. Thick, creamy, packed with flavour, smoky, slightly spicy. Healthy (corn and prawns, hello!) yet indulgent and comforting. Convinced yet? 

Then let's begin!

The recipe makes enough chowder for two and is slightly modified from a recipe I found on a blog called Bev Cooks (by the way, something tells me I'm going to visit that blog very often). As the recipe used American ingredients and measurements I had to improvise and change a few things. I also added chipotle paste for extra smokiness and a little kick.

You'll need:

200 g raw prawns

75 g streaky unsmoked bacon, chopped into quite small pieces

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 heaped tsp of vegetable stock powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chipotle paste

2 cobs of corn, kernels removed (about 200 g corn in total. If you can't find fresh corn, canned should do!)

3 heaped tbsps creme fraiche (I used half fat version)

pepper 

oil for frying

few basil leaves, chopped, to garnish

Start by prepping the veggies: finely chop the onion, mince the garlic and slice the kernels off the corn cob into a bowl.

Fry bacon in the frying pan until nice and crispy, then remove from the pan and place on a paper towel to drain off the fat.

You should have some bacon fat left in the pan - place your prawns in the pan and fry for about 1 minute on each side - be careful not to overcook them. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add a bit of olive oil to the pan if necessary, then fry off onion, garlic, chipotle paste, paprika and pepper for about 5 minutes. I didn't add any salt as bacon and stock are already quite salty.

Once the onion and garlic are softened add corn to the pan and fry some more. While the corn is frying, boil some water and make about 250-350 ml of stock. Add 3 tablespoons of creme fraiche to the pan, stir in, then add stock, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes place half of the chowder in a bowl or a deep dish and quickly blitz it with a hand held blender (or pulse in a food processor). The mix should stay a bit chunky. Return the blitzed mix to the pan and stir. Mix in most of the prawns and bacon bits, stir again and serve, topped with reserved prawns, bacon and torn basil. Use some toasted bread or baguette to mop up the sauce. Delish.