Recipe #55: Spicy Corn and Crab Chowder

I love the nice glossy colorful pages of a cooking magazine, and now I have a new favorite:  Cooking Light.  I just polished off a big bowl of this awesome chowder, a recipe found on page 104 of the August issue.  I LOVED this recipe- a little heat, really chunky, lots of flavor, and of course making something from scratch is always fun!

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium poblano chile
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (16oz) package frozen corn, thawed
1 cup half-and-half, divided
1 (8oz) russet potato, peeled and chopped
2 cups water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk (I used 1%)
1 (8oz) container crab claw meat, shell pieces removed

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat broiler.

Place poblano on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Broil 8 minutes on each side or until blackened.  Place pepper in a small zip-lock bag; seal.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Peel and chop.

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add onion, salt, sugar, and red pepper to pan; saute 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add corn; saute 2 minutes.  Remove 3/4 cup corn mixture from pan.  Combine 3/4 cup corn mixture and 3/4 cup half-and-half in a blender/food processor and process until smooth.  Add potato to pan; saute 1 minute.  Stir in 2 cups of water; bring to a boil.  Cook 4 minutes or until potato is almost tender.  Reduce heat to medium.

Combine remaining 1/4 cup half-and-half and flour in a small bowl, stirring until smooth.  Add flour mixture to pan.  Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Return corn puree to pan.  Stir in poblano, milk, and crab; bring to a simmer.  Cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Serves 4.