Salmon Chowder

The big sweet onions that arrive in the fall have been appearing at the farmers’ markets, so I was tempted to write up French Onion Soup. Last year I didn’t stock up before the onions sold out. But as I associate French Onion soup with lunch on cool fall days, with Tarte Tatin for dessert, my suggestion is to stock up on the onions  -they keep well in a cool, dry place- and the recipe will follow anon.

This week’s recipe is for a fish chowder. It originated in Finland, which is easy to tell by the ingredients. Decades ago, when we first visited Norway, there were only local products available and fish and potatoes could appear at every meal.  This is an American adaptation, with such time saving products as bottled clam juice. The recipe calls for roasted salmon, but the difficulty these days of finding fish that is neither farm raised nor previously frozen means that other options might be called for.

One possibility is to use canned salmon. I have made the soup this way and it came out well. It was not quite the same in terms of consistency, but it was tasty and enjoyable. There are other fishes that look like salmon, such as steelhead trout, but I do not know if that would give the same result in terms of flavor.

This soup does not take very long to cook and does not get pureed, so it is a relatively short procedure. Because it calls for low fat milk and fish, it makes a substantial and healthy meal.

Ingredients

1 tsp butter

3 cups chopped onion

¼ cup flour

1 8 oz bottle clam juice

4 cups peeled and cubed potatoes

1 ½ cups thinly sliced carrots

3 ½ cups low fat milk

10 oz cooked (roasted) salmon

2 Tbsp chopped fresh or 2 tsp dried dill

¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Melt butter in soup pot. Add onions and cook 5 minutes
2. Stir in flour. Cook 1 minute
3. Gradually add clam juice and bring to a boil. Cook stirring until thick
4. Add potatoes and carrots, stir in milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes
5. Break salmon into chunks and add with dill and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.