Tomato & Corn Pie

Tomato & Corn Pie, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

This is the Pie That Started It All. In honor of Smitten Kitchen's 6th birthday here is  the first recipe I ever made.
The day I stumbled upon Smitten, I was looking for a Mac & Cheese recipe. From the moment I opened up that page and read that post I was hooked . She had posted her adaption of a Martha Stewart recipe, one that I had actually made back when I didn't know any better.  I had cursed it for its excessiveness. It was enormous and cost a small fortune. It was so Martha.
It was delicious of course.
The best thing about Smittens post that day was her link to her previous attempt at Mac & Cheese, a simpler, back to basics macaroni and cheese.
I didn't make that.
Instead, I surfed...and surfed, which, come to think of it, may have been the moment my kitchen ocd/add became apparent...ogleing all the pretty pictures, reading her charming and laugh out loud prose, tap tap tapping at the "Surprise Me" feature...until I hit upon Tomato and Corn Pie. I was essentially instructed to stop what I was doing and go to the store immediately to purchase whatever ingredients the little kitchen was missing and get to making this. Now.
I did that.
It sounded a little crazy at the time, not as crazy as Cauliflower Cake...which turned out to be crazy good by the way, but I'd not yet been introduced to savory tarts (save for the occasional quiche or frittata), galettes and pies.

Now that I have a marble table top of my very own...pie dough?!? Bring it On!

This pie is crazygood too.

corn chowder with chiles

corn chowder with chiles, originally uploaded by riptideredsf.

I'm currently obsessed with corn chowder. The tex-mex restaurant where I tend bar on the weekends makes an amazing chicken corn chowder which is only prepared for Sunday brunch. I love that soup. I harrassed the chef for the recipe and scribbled down the pertinent ingredients that stood out from the other dozen recipes that I had stock-piled. Namely fresh jalepenos, poblanos, fresh lime juice and cilantro. That recipe also starts with their tortilla soup base made from fresh home made chicken stock. The math overwhelmed.

I decided this recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks was the best place to start. It starts with bacon. 'Nuf said.
I try reallyreallyreally hard, when making a recipe for the first time, to follow it verbatim, before I start tweaking. It's hard. I was proud of my restraint from adding the potatoes and chunks of cooked chicken breast I had sitting there eager to be a part of this soup. "Next time. Next time." I kept telling myself. There will definitely be a next time with this and it was damn perfect outta the gate. It starts with bacon. I said that right?

Ok...a few tiiiinnnny tweaks. I subbed the chicken stock for corn stock I made with the fresh shaved cobs. I never buy boxed  or canned chicken stock. The decent ones are too pricey for the little kitchen and I just can't justify that when I can buy a whole chicken for six bucks. I buy a powdered "fake" chicken broth seasoning in bulk from Whole Foods or Rainbow, which I added to the corn stock.  I also toasted the corn kernals, after slicing them off the cob, in a dry non-stick skillet, deglazed with lots of fresh lime juice and I also added one extra chipotle pepper. That was it.

Here's what went into this corn stock:

6 cups of water
6 corn cobs
one onion cut into 8 chunks
3 smallish carrots scrubbed and cut into chunks
3-4 celery stalks cut into chunks
about a 2 teaspoons of whole black pepper corns
about a teaspoon of whole coriander
about a teaspoon of cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of dried tarragon (my new favorite herb)
3 serrano peppers
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
6 tablespoons of "fake" chicken seasoning

Once it's come to a boil I let it simmer for an hour. Scoop out the big chunks of vegetables with a slotted spoon, then strain the rest through a clean tea towel. I add the powdered seasoning after  straining. At this point you'll want to taste it and add more salt if you need it.