Recipe Mods: Smoked Salmon and Corn Chowder

Posted on 27 February 2008 under Magazines, Michigan Cuisine, Recipes, Soup | 7 Comments

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 …

Grit Magazine, and My Idea of ‘A Cute Knife Company’

Posted on 26 September 2007 under Knives, Magazines, Recipes | 7 Comments

‘Cute’ knives. You know the ones. Churches sell them at fundraisers. Flea market vendors sell them in large plastic cups. They’re the ones with the roundish shiny aluminum handles, the ones in mom’s kitchen drawer … my mom has, like, 5 of the things, all paring knives. She uses them for everything, from cutting veggies and potatoes, to cutting grilled steak on a plate. All my relatives have them, somewhere or other, and they sometimes find their way here. They don’t seem to get dull either.

They’re weird simply because they’re everywhere. If someone wanted to know what was going on in households around this country, just put bugs in those aluminum knife handles. Scary, that … but where do they come from?

Yesterday I was digging through a Meijer looking for birthday gifts for Mary when I spotted Grit magazine on the shelves. The subtitle, “America’s Rural Lifestyle Magazine for 125 Years”, was what really caught my eye. How many magazines in this country have lasted that long? There aren’t many that can make that claim, so I was a bit curious. Looking through it, I found a great article for reader JEP … 6 different recipes for cole slaw! There are other great food articles as well, including one on canning, another on country cafés, and a section called Recipe Box, with info and recipes from the National Chicken Cooking Contest. I had no idea there was such a thing …

In the back of the printed magazine is a small ad for a company called Rada Cutlery. Man, that image looked familiar … I went to the Rada Cutlery web site… so that’s where those beasties come from! Yup, this is the one, that’s for sure:

Rada Cutlery was originally manufactured starting in 1948 as a fund raiser for churches. Over the years the line grew to include various sizes of knives, utensils, and other related items. As the line grew more businesses became interested in selling Rada Cutlery in their stores and at fairs or flea markets. Rada Mfg. Co. enjoys working with many types of Resellers and has purposefully avoided selling to large retailers. We enjoy working with many smaller customers rather than a few large customers.

Fundraiser packages, home parties, distribute through anyone who wants to distribute … they make other products as well, such as soup, bread and dip mixes, stoneware, cookbooks …

Their model R101 is the one my mom can’t seem to have enough of. Have you seen these in kitchen drawers or in-use among family and friends anywhere? If so, where?