Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Smoked Salmon Chowder

Yum

A delicious, creamy chowder with smoked salmon and other, common, ingredients.  Perfect for a cold, rainy day.


Living in Hawaii is great.  All of the warm, sunny days are wonderful but occasionally we get dark and rainy days that are a little chilly.  On these days there is nothing better than good old, cold weather comfort food...it's really the only time I have any interest in making it.  This chowder was just that.  Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

2 strips bacon, chopped
1/2 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, chopped small
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup flour
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (14 oz) can refilled with milk
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp dill
1/2 tsp tarragon
1 cup smoked salmon
1 tsp hot sauce
About 2-4 Tbsp lemon juice (1 1/2 lemons)

Cook bacon, over medium heat, (in a stock pot) until starting to brown.  Then add onion, celery, carrot, and potato (season with salt and pepper); cook until onions soften.  Add garlic and cook about 1 minute more, or until fragrant.  Stir in flour, cook flour, stirring constantly for about 1 minute.  Flour should coat everything and make kind of a paste.

Pour in chicken broth and milk, stir well and wait till it begins to boil.  Then reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes (or until potatoes are soft).  Stir in mushroom soup and herbs.  Continue to stir until chowder thickens slightly, then add salmon.  Mix salmon in well and remove from heat.  Lastly stir in hot sauce and lemon juice.  Let sit 5-10 minutes before serving.  Garnish with sliced green onion and serve with crackers.  Serves 6.

This was a simple and tasty dinner.  I had all of the ingredients on hand and all of the prep work can be done ahead of time.  You can cut up the onions, celery and carrot a day in advance just seal them in Tupperware and refrigerate.  You can even prepare  the potato ahead of time too, just submerge the cut pieces in water so they don't brown.  If you don't have smoked salmon, try leftover cooked salmon, or maybe even the stuff you can buy in a can (although I've never tried it before).  As always be creative.  Enjoy.




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