Roasted Pepper Corn Chowder

First, some announcements. One, please note the Relay button on your right as you read this. This is a link to the Relay for Life website, if you would like to donate to my co-worker’s team. Second, I added a playlist with the songs I’ve talked about on this blog, but you have to hit play if you want to hear them. Now! On to my regularly scheduled posting :)
Yummy! One of my co-workers is taking a cooking class on “Soups and Stocks” this month. I would love to take this class, but since I’m trying to save money, I have the next best thing. Her class meets Tuesday night and on Wednesday she brings me a sample and the recipe. This week was Roasted Pepper Corn Chowder, which I made for me and Sarah tonight. Of course I didn’t follow the recipe, but…It turned out mighty good anyway! Here’s my recipe.
Roasted Pepper Corn Chowder
6 T unsalted butter
6 shallots, peeled and diced (or ½ a medium onion)
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic
3 T cornstarch
3 T sugar
2 bags of frozen super sweet corn (the steamable kind) (appx 6 cups of corn)
1 C half & half
2 (ish) C milk
2 roasted poblano peppers, peeled and diced*
1 ½ t flour (I used buckwheat, but any will work)
Salt to taste

Melt 3 T butter in a large stockpot, over medium-high heat. Add shallots and celery and sauté until soft. Remove from heat and grate garlic stirring with each garlic clove. Add cornstarch, sugar, 4 C corn and half & half. Mix well. Puree in a blender until thick and mostly uniform. Return to stock pot and add butter, salt and remaining corn. Heat over medium heat.
Place 1 C milk and poblano peppers in blender and blend until smooth. The poblano chunks will mostly rise to the top. Add them to the stock pot, reserving the green milk. In a bowl combine flour and a small amount of green milk and mix until the consistency of pancake batter. Add to stockpot. Heat five more minutes. Add remaining milk as needed to gain the desired consistency.
Eat.

*How to Roast/Peel a poblano pepper
Remove grate from gas stove. Turn the heat as high as it will go. Grasp the pepper in a pair of metal tongs and hold it directly in the flame. It will snap and the skin will bubble and brown. Rotate until the skin is brown and peeling off of most of the pepper. Allow the pepper to cool and then grasp in a towel, rotating roughly. Most of the skin will come off, don’t worry about the remaining bits.
Also, when dicing the pepper, be sure to remove all the seeds, because they are the spiciest part of a pepper!!