The last week I have been sick at home with the mother of all flu. I have sustain myself on HUGE amounts of liquids, grilled cheese sandwiches and can soup. Anything else was too much effort and frankly I could not find anything else remotely appetizing.

I been so weak and tired that I could not bring myself to do anything else but stay in bed, read and hope that this nasty thing will just go away once and for all.

During my time in bed, besides reading huge amounts of trashy romantic novels, watching the whole season of Orange of the new Black and House of cards, I Pinterest myself to death. Since I was not cooking in real life, I let pinterest cook for me virtually by browsing hundreds of pins about all the food I wanted to eat by was to lazy to get up and cook.

Just like they advocate to not go to the supermarket with an empty stomach, I highly recommend not to pin when you have not eaten anything but cheese and soup for five days straight.

I started to get cravings for everything – bananas, corn, seafood, sweet, sour, soups, stews – I was out of control and all over the place.

One of the things that I gravitated towards was soup and stews – it has been crazy cold here in Florida and nothing but a hot bowl of soup or stew was going to cure those winter blues.

Today was the first day that I felt almost human. I was still feeling congested and stuffy, but, not as bad as the last five days - and I was hungry, which is a good sign. So I went hunting in the refrigerator for inspiration. And I found all the ingredients for this Corn chowder.

This soup is inspired by a combination of various pins – I loved everything about it. Corn chowder is one of my favorite soups and if I could eat shrimp everyday I would. And don’t get me started with what to do with bacon. Putting it all together was a nice little slice of cooking heaven.

The end results yield a creamy soup, with sweet corn as the star and the curry and cayenne pepper playing off the delicate shrimp giving it some heat. The crispy bacon was just the encore on the dish.

SWEET CORN AND SHRIMP CHOWDER

2 tablespoons Olive Oil, plus more for drizzling
1 frozen package of whole Sweet Corn - (1 lb / 454 gr)
2 whole Gold Potatoes
4 slices Bacon
1 pound Large Shrimp, peeled and deveined and patted dry
1 tablespoon Butter
1 whole Onion, diced
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika (if you like more smoky flavor up to 1 Tablespoon)
¼ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
¼ teaspoon of Curry (can be paste or powder)
3 cloves Garlic, mince
1 cup white wine (what ever you drink is good)
2 cups Chicken Stock
Salt and fresh Pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped for garnish
½ cup of cream

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. On a sheet pan drizzle the corn with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until corn looks golden and starting to chard a bit. Remove and let cool until ready to handle.

Meanwhile, cook your potatoes - you can do this by dicing and placing in a medium pot of salted water, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Or you can also use the microwave, once ready, peal them up and place potatoes in a bowl and mash them. Season with a bit of salt and put aside until ready to add to the soup

Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven or pot over medium heat.

Add the bacon and cook rendering the fat. Cook until you get crisp bacon bits - then bring forth all effort to NOT SNACK on those crispy morsels - when you remove them from the fire with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Remove some of the fat until about 2 tablespoons are left in the pot. Add shrimp to the pot and season with salt and pepper, cook for 2 minutes in the bacon fat. Stir to cook shrimp evenly, do not overcook! You want them a bit undercooked - remember you will be adding them to your final cook chowder and they will continue to cook in the hot soup. Remove shrimp with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the 2 tablespoons of butter along with the onions to the pot and increase the heat slightly. Sweat out the onions until translucent and tender, about 5 minutes. Add the reserved roasted sweet corn kernels to the pot. Stir in and season with salt and pepper. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, curry and cayenne. Stir until everything is coated. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Deglaze pot with the white wine of your choice. Scrape up any browned bits and simmer until liquid is reduced, about 5 minutes. Stir in potato puree. Taste and if needed, season with salt and cracked pepper.

While stirring start adding the stock. Stir well. Make sure the stock is completely stirred into the mixture. Reduce heat and simmer soup for 10 minutes. Pour the cream last, stir and taste. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

Before serving toss in chopped cilantro, reserved shrimp and bacon.