PickFishes’ Copper
River Smoked Salmon Chowder
Ingredients:
4 slices bacon
1 carrot
1-2 stalks celery (optional)
1 -2 small onion
1-2 cloves garlic
6-8 small potatoes, pealed
¼ cup flour
2 Tablespoon butter
4-6 cups stock (I used home made chicken stock)
1-cup corn (I used frozen)
6-8 ounces Smoked Copper River Salmon
½-1 pint heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste
I’ve learned over the years of cooking on a boat, life is
just infinitely easier if you just prep absolutely everything you are going to
need to prepare a meal before hand.
Because, inevitably, there will be some surprise come up
while cooking. Either another boat runs
by and wakes you, the skipper decides he has to run the net just as your pot
starts to boil and you have to grab it before boiling spaghetti water goes
flying all over the cabin getting everyone nice 2nd degree burns, or
its just rough enough that you have to hold on while you are cooking (which
means you will have to hold the pot while its cooking). If you are like me and
only have two hands, its impossible to hold the pot and chop something at the
same time, or (and this is my personal
favorite) even though the skipper knows
you are cooking a meal, he decides the net needs to be picked right this very
second and the whole meal gets put on hold.
For whatever reason, I just like to have everything ready before I
begin. But, you can do whatever you
would like to do. This recipe is just a
guideline. Actually, as some of you may
know, I personally can’t seem to follow a recipe to save my life, which is how
I came up with this recipe. I don’t know
why, (maybe I just have a problem with authority) or I just don’t have all the
ingredients so I substitute (again, boat life means you sort of have to work
with what you have since running to the store usually isn’t an option), or I
don’t like an ingredient so I leave it out, or (which just happened with this
recipe) after going to three different stores, I gave up looking for celery so
I left it out. Anyway, I digress. This recipe here is a combination of four
different recipes that I found for smoked salmon chowder. Well, actually, three different recipes for
smoked salmon chowder and I followed part of the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for
“Perfect Potato Soup”. (Thanks Pioneer Woman!) So feel free to
follow it or use it as a guideline, up to you. Ok, here we go.
·
Peel potatoes and cube into small pieces
(otherwise they take forever to cook)
·
Dice onions, carrot, celery (optional) into
small pieces
·
Peel garlic and either slice it into very small
pieces or get it ready for the garlic press, which is what I did
·
Slice bacon into small cubes
·
Measure out ¼ cup flour
·
Measure out about 1 cup of corn
Ok. I’m a little afraid
of your judgment when I tell you the first step so I’m going to defend myself
right now. As I mentioned I’m in Finland
for the winter at latitude 62.24. Its
mid November and it is already cold and dark.
My body wants FAT! So, if you are
concerned about your fat intake you can adjust the first step to your liking
but if you are in the mood for hearty chowder, then I’m giving you permission
to follow this recipe to a “T”. And, for
the record, this first part is part of one of the recipes I found and
followed. So, don’t shoot the messenger. Ok, here we go. Again.
In heavy soup pot on medium high heat, melt your 2
Tablespoons butter, add bacon. Yes, this
recipe calls for cooking bacon in butter.
Yum. You know this is going to be good.
Besides, the goodness of the salmon should counteract the badness of
bacon cooked in butter. I think.
·
Cook bacon until mostly brown, about 2-3
minutes.
·
Add onion, carrot, and your optional celery.
·
Cook until onions are near translucent, about
another 2-3 minutes.
·
Then add your potatoes and salt to your
liking. Cook this bacon, onion, carrot,
optional celery, potato and salt combination about 4 or 5 minutes, stirring
frequently.
·
Add garlic, stir.
·
Add pepper to your liking.
·
Sprinkle on ¼ cup flour and stir, making a quick
roux.
·
After the flour is all mixed in, add your
chicken stock, about 4-6 cups.
·
Stir and turn heat down to about a low-medium.
·
Add your cup of corn
·
Open your 6-8 ounce package of smoked salmon and
pour the oil from the salmon into the soup.
Then dump salmon onto a cutting board and cut into small pea sized
pieces.
·
Add smoked salmon to soup, go ahead and throw in
all the skin and oil. Its good for you.
·
Stir and let simmer about 5 minutes or until
your potatoes are fully cooked. Once the
potatoes are fully cooked, you can add the cream.
·
Then add your ½ -1 pint heavy cream. Stir. (I used ½ pint and it was plenty rich
and creamy. Feel free to substitute milk
or a combination of heavy cream and milk, but with the bacon and the butter,
does it really matter at this point?)
·
Turn down heat to low, you don’t want the soup
to scorch or the cream to separate.
·
Serve and enjoy!
Let me know how you like this recipe, how it came out for you, or if you made any changes!
