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