Saturday, November 24, 2012

Smoked Salmon Chowder

I’ve been working to eat the salmon pieces I smoked the other day and decided to give a soup a try, so I went looking for a recipe and found one for Our Notorious Smoked Salmon Chowder from Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, WA.   Since I believe fish chowder should start with bacon, I added it and made a few other revisions.

Smoked Salmon Chowder
Adapted from Boundary Bay Brewery

Ingredients:
4 slices bacon (Benton’s smoked of course)
3½ cups diced potatoes
2½ cups diced carrots
3 cups onions, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
¼ cup garlic, chopped
1½ cups clam juice (I used some homemade shrimp stock from the freezer)
1½ cups white wine
1½ tsp. dried thyme
½ cup butter
½ cup flour
1 cup heavy cream & 5 cups 1% milk (recipe uses all cream)
3 cups smoked salmon, chopped (this is double the recipe amount)
1 tsp. dried dill weed  

Directions:
1. Dice the bacon, fry crispy in a heavy bottomed pot, and remove the excess grease.
2. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and sauté until softened some, adding back some grease or oil as needed.
3. Add the shrimp stock, wine, potatoes, and thyme and cook until the potatoes are tender.
4. Meanwhile, warm the dairy in a small pan and melt the better in another pan, then slowly stir in the flour to make a white roux.
5. Stir the dairy into the roux and when well incorporated, add it to the vegetable pot along with the salmon. 
6. At this point, I tasted it and added S&P and decided it needed the dried dill.  I also thought it needed more salmon and added the third cup, so I ended up with twice what the recipe called for.
7. Cook a few more minutes to heat the salmon and serve garnished with a little dill (dried is all I had).

I added oyster crackers to my next bowl a couple of hours later.

I thought it was very, very good and it will be a definite make again recipe.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/18/12 meal date

21 comments:

  1. Now that is a very great sounding recipe for a chowder, nice and thick, full of flavor - very nice not having to do a reduction and I know the addition of more salmon made it over the top... so I see as a second bowl was needed, now that's good proof.

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  2. I too love a good chowder. So nice that you had shrimp stock in the freezer too. I like that you've lightened it up and not used all cream, which sometimes can be too heavy for my taste.

    Have a great weekend Larry.
    Sam

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    1. Hi Sam - Since it had a roux, I didn't see the need for the cream as well and it was plenty rich.

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  3. Larry, Is there anything that you don't have in one of your freezers??! We hope that you, Bev and Madison had a great Thanksgiving! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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    1. I'm sure there is David, but we keep lots of stuff in our 4 freezers.

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  4. Wow I have never had salmon any other way but grilled this is a pleasant change to the same ole same ole looks and sounds delish!

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    1. Thanks Claudia - This was my first time to use it for soup and I thought it worked very well.

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  5. Our only child went to western washington university in bellingham, washington where the boundary bay brewing company is and let me tell you their restaurant is fabuloussssss! we always had their chowders, fish dishes and of course some brews I don't drink but they made me a concotion with real apple cider and some other spices, we all have save the ales sweatshirts from boundary bay brewery and when we get up that way I buy more for gifts, they are comfy, cozey and come with a hoodie attached to make sure when it drizzles up there all the time one is cozey, love the recipes you fix, happy hanukkah and merriest of christmases, love love love your blog, wish I could Q like you do, oh, my would my family be so happy! Keep the recipes a coming, they all sound and after I make them taste so so so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Thanks for the validation on my choice of recipes and for the flattering comments.

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  6. At first I thought the smoked salmon wouldn't taste good in a fish chowder but then I thought bacon is smoked and it makes chowder taste great. It looks fantastic. I love how you make such great use of everything!

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  7. Thanks Susan and trust me, it made great soup unless your don't like smoky - I used smoked bacon as well.

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  8. I love salmon SO MUCH, and can't even imagine how delicious this chowder must be! Thanks for this delicious dish recipe Larry! Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!

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  9. Larry, this is the best looking salmon chowder recipe I've ever seen. Could you possibly go wrong by adding bacon?! I just printed it to make next week. (I love any reason to use up more of the smoked salmon in our freezer!)

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  10. I was expecting a brewery to use a beer in their chowder so the white wine surprised me. I know Trevor would be helping you take that salmon off of your hands, ha ha.

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  11. This sounds fantastic. Do you think I could use the same recipe with crab?

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  12. Thanks for your take on this chowder. I live in Bellingham and make Boundary Bay’s smoked salmon chowder a couple times a year & came across your version yesterday, it was a hit! No bacon and used clam juice, it is very very good. Cheers 🎄

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