It's a chilly, rainy winter night, and we've warmed ourselves up a bit with a hearty salmon chowder. The idea sprang from necessity. End of the week: our fridge is bare, but we have a pound of wild salmon from T.J.s in the freezer ready to be defrosted. That's our dinner, but we want to try something different than the usual broiled fish recipe. It's between fish soup and salmon cakes, and the chowder recipe wins out.
We start with four slices of bacon, cut into inch-long bits, in a big pot, crisped up nice. We remove the bacon, reserve the bacon grease for cooking potatoes, celery and onions until soft. We then add the broth of water, white wine and milk to the vegetables. Throw in the salmon for a few minutes, sprinkle in some fresh dill and you're ready to slurp.
The bowl is filling, creamy and flavorful. I especially like the different textures: firm potatoes, crunchy celery and soft salmon cubes. To top it off, Alex mixes up a spicy little raita of cucumbers to toss in the bowl for an extra kick. In all, an easy, fairly healthy potage de poisson I'd make again.
