Deliciously Creamy Fresh Salmon Chowder
I had some lovely salmon fillets in the freezer that we had gotten from Seafresh. Their fish is so amazing. I have never had any fish from them that I didn't like. Its frozen fresh at the source and so it is the freshest fish that you can find. Their salmon fillets are absolutely gorgeous. Boneless and skinless and individually frozen so that you can take out as many or as few as you want to cook.
Sourced from the clear cold waters of Scotland and the Farroe Islands, they are centre cuts, cut from the thicker mid-section of the salmon, rather than the tail. Fish cuts from closer to the tail are a lot "fishier" if you know what I mean. Stronger in flavour. I much prefer the higher quality centre cuts.
I fancied a rib sticking soup today and so I did some research online. I thought perhaps a chowder with maybe some spinach, but I didn't have any fresh spinach in the house, although I did have frozen . . . but in something like a chowder I feel fresh spinach is best.
I came across what looked like a very promising recipe on Spruce Eats for a Creamy Salmon Chowder. I did find a few others, but of all the ones I looked at, this one looked the best from my view-point and inspired me.
I adapted their recipe to my own tastes and knowledge, plus I sized it down to serve two people perfectly and generously.
I wanted a recipe that wouldn't over-power the delicate flavours of the salmon and which would allow the salmon itself to shine.
A lot of chowder recipes use bacon, and I am not against bacon, but I didn't want bacon in my salmon chowder, at least not today anyways.
A mirepoix of vegetables are softened in some butter. Mirepoix is a mix of aromatics used to give sauces, stocks and soups flavour. Usually it will consist of carrot, celery and onion, slow cooked in butter or oil without browning.
The goal is to sweeten the ingredients rather than caramelise them so that they will flavour your soup, sauce or stock beautifully.
After that you whisk in some flour and add a bit of chicken stock. Not an awful lot really, just enough that you can add your potato to the pan and it will basically almost cover it so that it can cook.
Once the potatoes were almost fork tender I added my salmon fillets and they poached quickly in the heat of the stock and the pan. It doesn't take long. Once they were poached I was able to break them into largish flakes . . .
It was then just a process of adding some whole milk, thawed frozen peas, and seasoning . . . I added some Tabasco sauce because I thought it would go well with both the fish and the cheddar cheese that is stirred in at the end. This was quite simply fabulous.
Yield: 2
Fresh Salmon Chowder
This is creamy and delicious. Adapted to feed only two from a recipe I found on another site.
ingredients:
- 1 1/2 TBS butter
- 1 stick celery, finely chopped
- 1 small carrot, peeled and chopped
- 2 TBS minced onion
- 1 TBS plain flour (all purpose)
- 180ml chicken stock (3/4 cup)
- 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
- 2 boneless, skinless salmon fillet portions
- 75g frozen peas thawed (1/2 cup)
- 240ml whole milk or half and half (1 cup)
- 120g strong cheddar cheese
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- a few splashes of Tabasco sauce
- chopped fresh flat leaf parsley to garnish
instructions:
How to cook Fresh Salmon Chowder
- Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the chopped vegetables and cook over low heat, stirring periodically, until the onion is translucent and the celery is tender. Whisk in the flour and then whisk in the chicken stock. Add the cubed potatoes. Cook over very low heat, covered, until the vegetables are crispy tender. Add the salmon fillets. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the salmon is tender. Break up into chunks. Add the peas and milk. Heat through just until the peas are tender. Add the cheese and stir to melt the cheese. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately. I like crackers with mine. Todd enjoys bread.
As with any fish dish, quality speaks for itself. When you are starting with really good fish, you really don't or shouldnt' have to do very much to it to get the best from it. The Salmon fillets from Seafresh are beautiful. I think they are the best I have ever eaten and that says a lot! If you are looking for quality fish at a great price with a fabulous delivery service I can't recommend Seafresh highly enough! Their product, delivery service, packaging and customer service are exemplary in my opinion and so is this recipe!!
A few things about Seafresh:
- Same Day dispatch on orders received before 1 PM.
- All packages are carefully hand packed.
- Free delivery on orders above £50, £8 on orders below that amount.
- Responsibly and sustainably sourced.
- Air Blast Frozen at source within 4 hours of being caught.
- Wide variety to choose from.
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Note - Although I was gifted with product free of charge for the purposes of review, I was not required to write a positive review in exchange, nor would my integrity allow me to recommend anything if I did not truly like it. Any and all my opinions are my own entirely.
