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 Sunday, July 22, 2007 Two shrimp, a couple of cobs and a recipe for corn chowder My mother is a “loaves and fishes” kind of a cook. She manages to create a delicious meal out of the left over bits and pieces from lunch, last night’s dinner and a few things from the market. On a recent summer afternoon on the Cape, our hungry family was stirring and it was time to make supper out of the seemingly barren refrigerator. Several nights earlier, my mother had served shrimp and corn on the cob for dinner. Being true to one of her favorite mottos, “waste not want not”, she had stripped the corn from the uneaten cobs and made a broth with the cobs, the shrimp shells she had saved, and the court bouillon in which the shrimp had cooked. We had about 2 quarts of a delicious base for our dinner. The idea of chowder began to come together. No one really wanted to go into Hyannis to shop for food, so we did a mental inventory of the fridge. My mother was able to list lots of vegetables (carrots, potatoes, some of the corn, beans), but there didn’t seem to be any protein. When I said I thought we needed protein, she said, “but, Jody dear, there are leftover shrimp—two of them.” That’s my mom. As the family relaxed, friends wandered in and the girls giggled and played hide and seek, Ginny (my sister) and I did the kitchen dance we’ve been doing together forever and made a fabulous chowder. I diced 3 strips of smoked bacon and started it in a soup pot over medium heat. When the fat had rendered, I added a chopped white onion and a red pepper I found in the fridge, along with some chopped garlic. After seasoning with salt and pepper, we let the vegetables sweat until they were tender. Fortunately, we had visited the Farmer’s market earlier in the week so we had lots to work with. Ginny peeled and sliced a bunch of baby carrots and cut green beans. These went into the pot with 2 small potatoes cut into a dice and Mom’s fabulous broth. The pot simmered away until the potatoes were tender. We added 2 peeled and chopped tomatoes, (I would have added 4 if we had had them), the corn, a cup of heavy cream, chopped parsley and at the last minute, the two shrimp, chopped up. As it simmered for a few minutes, the broth filled the kitchen with an amazing aroma—which, of course, is the trick to a great and satisfying, not necessarily big and grand, meal. Mom was right, with some bread, a little smoked mackerel on the side and a beautiful salad, there was plenty of shrimp for 6 people. And as our girls and parents slept, Ginny and I were able to leave the Cape at the crack of dawn the next morning, knowing that those two shrimp would provide another dinner for the four of them.
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