Sarah and I practiced a new recipe this past week. It was a poblano corn chowder. The recipe called for grilling corn and peppers but I didn’t have any propane left in my barbecue outside. When we purchased our new cooktop stove last year it came with a grill attachment that we had never used. Necessity caused us to bring it down from the attic.
Day 1 Thursday
I grilled the Anaheim chilles Sarah had purchased as a substitute for the Poblanos that she couldn’t find at the store. It was a slow process as I turned it over and over and slowly made the blackened marks on the skin. The same was true with the corn. I spent almost an hour just grilling peppers and corn and learned where the hot and cold spots were on the cast iron grill. We wrapped the peppers in plastic to let them sweat more which is supposed to make it easier to peel the skins. The recipe came out good overall and it tasted wonderful. I just thought it needed refinement.
Day 2 Friday
I decided the recipe needed to add some smoked chicken so after work I went to the store only to find that all the whole chickens were gone. I am wondering if the bird flu is causing shortages. I dragged my mother and dog with me to three stores before I found some whole birds. I bought three just like any other pandemic shopper would do.
I went home and had to clean up the side barrel smoker and light a fire. I also lit a campfire in the patio fire pit and enjoyed the afternoon keeping a watchful eye as I listed to a souther rock playlist. I invited a couple of friends over to join us for dinner.
The addition of smoked chicken to the leftover corn chowder proved a real success. The leftovers tasted better too.
Day 3 Saturday
Tonight was our formal dinner party with two other couples where we would be sharing our masterpiece of Mexican inspired cuisine. Realizing that the leftovers had grown in flavor we decided to make up the soup early in the morning so it could build flavor. I once more began the process grilling corn and Poblano peppers that I had found at the store during my quest for whole chickens. We decided to use both Poblano and Anaheim peppers.
Grilling them for the second time in two days revealed more about the process of cooking to separate the skin from the flesh of the pepper. I could see air pockets form under the skin and move like a bubble does in a pot of simmering water.
When it came time to grill the corn I could see the exact moment that the pale butter yellow of the raw corn began to darken into a rich yellow and then later into the caramel brown. In just two succesive tries I began to understand something new about grilling vegetables.
I think learning is like that. Just doing the same thing over and over reveals new insights into how the process works. I can take this lesson and apply it to my photography as I learn new genres of image-making. I hope my students will learn to trust the process of trial and error to gain insights and grow their confidence in their work.
