Recipe Mods: Smoked Salmon and Corn Chowder

Posted on 27 February 2008 under Magazines, Michigan Cuisine, Recipes, Soup

One question I’ve been asked on occasion is, “Where do you find material for your site?” I find it in a number of places. Unless I’ve come up with something myself, I always do my best to specifically say where in item has come from.

Here’s a project I now find myself in the middle of.

One recipe I’ve had on the back burner is a Salmon and Corn Chowder. This has seemed to be a definitive Michigan chowder, and I’ve wanted to put it together with that goal in mind. Salmon is readily available in the Great Lakes and its tributaries now, fresh sweet corn is a given around here (at least when the weather’s right or someone’s frozen some), and everything else would seem to fall into place.

A couple weeks ago I talked to Chef Tad about such a chowder. He seemed curious and suggested we save some fresh salmon from Chef Cedric’s Asparagus & Wild Mushroom-Stuffed Salmon Terrine to use in an initial batch of the chowder. I think we both kinda forgot about it.

This morning at the barber shop I was thumbing through a copy of the March 2008 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray (the first time I’ve actually looked at a copy) … and was pleasantly surprised to find Adeena Sussman’s recipe for a Smoked Salmon and Corn Chowder.

It was upon a first read of the recipe that Ms. Sussman and I parted ways. But only a little.

In the version of the photo in the magazine you can see the empty but dirty plate that supposedly once held the leftover Fettucini Alfredo the chowder recipe calls for. While the chowder recipe as given is probably quite tasty, I seriously doubt we’d have leftovers of Fettucini Alfredo around here. We also wouldn’t just happen to have smoked salmon anywhere either. On top of those issues, I was thinking potatoes were likely the right starch to use anyway, I’m not so sure about the celery being largely alone with the corn, the chicken broth seems weak …

So for myself, Adeena Sussman’s recipe for Smoked Salmon and Corn Chowder might be a good starting point for a from-scratch version. I do believe I know where to head with this though …

I like the idea of using smoked salmon for the chowder. Frozen corn is good. Fresh would be better, but frozen’s better than canned. About that celery … roasted bell pepper? How about celery and roasted bell pepper? That would work. Maybe with pearl onions? I’ll think about that … Chicken broth … scratch that and go with chicken stock. Fish stock might be alright, but maybe too fishy? Stay with chicken stock … Replace the noodles with cubed potatoes. Maybe even roast or sauté them until they’re slightly crunchy? That’d be interesting. Use butter for the sauté though, as olive oil would be too oily in a chowder … 3 cups milk. Maybe 2 cups milk and one cup half-and-half? That’d be creamier, that’s for sure. Dill goes good with salmon, so that’s fine …

So there it is, a work in progress. Maybe this weekend I’ll take these notes and do something with them. Maybe the Chef has some fresh smoked salmon. Maybe we could smoke some. Hmmm …

Read Comments

  1. 27 February 2008 @ 7:07 pm Posted by Cheryl Engfer

    Hey LPC, I made a promise to my hubby I’d dabble in some soup experimenting this winter….we love soup, I haven’t tried any yet. Got any suggestions?

  2. 28 February 2008 @ 6:12 am Posted by Dave

    Cheryl, the first thing you want is a decent soup cookbook. One book I’ve heard a lot of good things about (that’s on my wishlist) is the New England Soup Factory Cookbook. While I have a lot of cookbooks with various sections, for a subject like soup I prefer a book specific to that type of dish, and will be getting this book at some point.

    For some of the creamier soups you’re going to need an immersion blender. This KitchenAid model seems to get a lot of good reviews and appears rather rugged. You might be thinking, “I can just do that in a blender”. Not only is pouring scalding hot soup from a stock pot into a blender dangerous at best, but you end up with more control using the immersion blender.

    I’m not sure if you saw my recipe for Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup. It’d be a great way to get started on a frigid winter day!

  3. 28 February 2008 @ 10:46 am Posted by Leslie

    I think it’s interesting how others come up with relevant (or not so much) topics for their blogs. For me, my best ideas come when I’m far, far away from the computer and then by the time I sit down I forget! I’m sure others would agree, but I must say that I’m very glad you are so consistent with your blogging. :)

    For Cheryl, I made LPCs chicken noodle soup shortly after he posted the recipe and it was delicious and pretty easy, too.

  4. 29 February 2008 @ 9:43 am Posted by DurianDurian

    First of all, IMO the best book on soup is James Peterson’s. He’s such an authority on so many things, soup being just one of them. Second is Barbara Kafka’s.

    The New England Soup Factory makes great soup, but their book isn’t even in the same class as the other two.

    RR’s recipe with the leftover fettucini seemed very odd, indeed.

    I make fish, chicken and corn chowder all the time and I would not recommend chicken stock for a salmon and corn chowder, if, as I suspect, you are assuming that stock has a deeper flavor than broth. You don’t want this soup to taste chicken-y but you do want to give it some body and depth of flavor. So I’d use broth.

    If you add the red pepper you’ll end up with pinkish soup and a slightly piquant flavor. I wouldn’t do that either, but to each his own.

    Potatoes are a must. But you don’t want them crunchy because they are also a thickening agent.

    I generally use whole milk and some half and half but some people use cream. I think it depends on the mouthfeel you’re after and the calories you want to consume. I know people who use evaporated skim milk for this reason, but I always think it tastes like the can.

    I can see chowder in my future, too. Yum!

  5. 29 February 2008 @ 11:02 am Posted by Dave

    Durian, thanks for chiming in! Here’s a question for you; Why don’t you have a blog? The way you write, it would seem a natural thing.

  6. 29 February 2008 @ 11:20 am Posted by DurianDurian

    :-)

    Thank you. That was a very nice thing to say. I guess I never thought of it before. Plus I have more fun surfing around and looking at other people’s!!

    BTW, I can’t get chowder out of my mind now.

  7. 1 March 2008 @ 1:40 pm Posted by Cheryl Engfer

    Thank you for the great feedback! We are planning on making soup tomorrow!! Can’t wait!

Post Comments






XHTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

* Required. Your email will never be displayed in public.