Smoked Salmon Chowder

It started with a pot of #0 tomato sauce with about 4 stalks of celery, 2 big onions, double handful of baby carrots, maybe 1/4 med bulb of garlic all chopped up and fried in oil. Then I poured in about a cup of sweet-ish white wine and reduced that to goo.

This was flavored with bunch of fennel & dried basil crushed between fingers and thumb. Maybe a teaspoon or so of each?

Lastly, once the milk has come to temperature I chunked up and added in all the salmon. let this simmer for a bit then thicken it a bit by whisking in some flour.

Julie thinks this is the best salmon chowder she has ever tasted. She's been gushing about it for two days now. Hence this writ up. Maybe with this I'll be able to recreate it in the future?

We ate about 2/3s of this for dinner what to do with the leftover the next day?

Added a box of chicken broth to the pot along with 4 potatoes chopped up started this boiling.

I had about 1/2 small jar of smoked salmon left over, Ma bought a smoked salmon pack at Costco. Three flavors. Maybe 1/2 lb pack?
I stripped the skin off the salmon from the Costco pack and dropped them in whole to add some flavor. Also added the juice from my jar of salmon and also opened a tuna-sized can of salmon and added the water in from that.

Let this all boil 'till the potatoes were soft then.. Dumped in 2..3 cups of milk and maybe 1/2 cup or so of whipping cream. (Whatever was left in the carton) And, I added about 1..2 tsp thyme. 

#2

Make the canless tomato sauce as per usual (5lb of tomatoes) I added about 4 basal leafs. Reduced sugar to 4 1/2 tbl a couple pinches of fennel ground between fingers and a shake of thyme.

Other pan. 1 1/2 onions chopped fried on olive oil, salt, garlic powder & a splash of soy sauce. Fry 'till starting to get clear.

Now add 1/2 carton of chicken broth to the onions and add in a couple handfuls of carrots. Start this boiling.

Chop up about 3..4 stalks of celery, toss this into the pot as well.

Once the carrots are done enough to chop up with a spoon, chop them up. Dump in a full carton of chicken broth (yes 1 1/2 total) get this boiling. Add a little bit of the smoked salmon in to drive the flavor over towards the chowder side. 

Now add the potatoes. (5 small ones chopped up)

Once the potatoes are done, add the rest if the smoked salmon (1/2 lb) and a can of canned salmon. Also added a couple pinches of fennel and a shake of both thyme and basal.

The sauce should be ready by the time the potatoes are done. Dump the pan into the sauce. Add 1/2 small carton of whip cream and a healthy slosh of milk. Bring this to a boil..

Done!

NEXT : Used home made canned tomato soup as base. (on this list)

Added smoked salmon and a can of salmon to onion/garlic/celery with spices fry up. Pretty sure now that the non-smoked canned salmon is a mistake. Adds a subtle cat pee flavor. Next time its going to be just smoked salmon. 

COMBINED RECIPE FOR COOK OFF:

Started a full Canless tomato sauce in dutch oven.

Chopped up 1 med onion good sizedb handful of baby carrots and about the same amount of celery. Added full crush of garlic from the garlic masher. Maybe 3 med cloves. Got this frying in a large frypan with olive oil.

Peeled and diced 5 medium potatoes dumped these into a pot with a box (quart?) of chicken stock and got this boiling.

Back to the frying pan. Once everything has been fried 'till its soft, add in a few (3..4) large pinches of fennel seeds crushed between your fingers and about double that crushed of basil. Then a VARY LIGHT dusting of thyme. Watch out for thyme, too much and everything will taste like a musty attic. 

Salt this mixture to taste..

Now pour in a cup of sweet-ish white wine, reduce this to a goo.

About now the tomato sauce should be getting ready to go. Deal with that. Adding sugar & chili powder etc.

Once the wine had reduced, adjust the flavor with sugar to kill off any lingering sour tastes.

By now the potatoes should be getting near done.  Combine the vegetable mixture into the potatoes. At this point I added the salmon skins to the top if this mixture to get some salmon flavor going.

Check the sauce, add extra sugar if its sour.

Once the potatoes are done and the sauce is done remove the salmon skins and combine everything in the sauce pot. Chunk up the salmon(1/2..1 lb.) and add that in as well.

Return this to a boil then add a cup of cream and about a 3 second slosh of milk. Bring back to a boil again, adjust out any harsh flavors with sugar.

Done!