Smoked Salmon and Cod Chowder

We eat a lot of salmon and cod because we live in Pacific Northwest.  We buy a whole sales box straight from the fish buyer twice a year, so I have some always available in my freezer and cook them frequently.  I try to cook them in various ways. We love eating salmon simply grilled or baked, but we tend to get bored with grilled/baked cod because cod is more plain tasting.  Over the years, I tried different ways to eat salmon and cod.  I should be posting more of those recipes here. There are a few really good ones that I want to post in the near future.  But for today I present chowder.  My all time favorite.

To make it a bit different than usual, sometime we smoke fish and make them into different dishes.  Smoking fish is so great and so fun because it preserves the fish really well and it's super easy to do.  We have a smoker but you don't even need a smoker.  Just have to be creative and use what you got around the kitchen like this for example.  You just need some sort of a stainless steel or metal container, aluminum foil, metal wire and wood chips. I love doing this in my backyard or while camping.  If you do it indoor, make sure the fan is turned on all the way up!  

Anyway we usually put a few different rubs on them, spicy one for the grown-ups, sweet one for the kids, hrby one for everyone.   

I often make fish cakes like crab cakes, salmon dip, and soup with left overs.  The chowder was almost better with smoked fish.  It's also slightly healthier version because I didn't use any bacon since there was that smoked flavor from the fish.  I do love bacon for the record.

Recipe:  serves 4 

Chowder

One filet of smoked salmon and cod

2 large stokes of celery chopped

1 medium onion  chopped

3 cloves of garlic chopped

3 small potatoes cubed

1/4 of cauliflower

1 quart of chicken broth

1/2 cup of heavy cream

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

a small hand full of Italian pursley chopped

fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

Chop garlic, celery, and onion.  Cut potatoes and cauliflower in small cubes.  Take a filet of fish and great it into small chunks.  

Heat the pan with medium high heat and add extra virgin olive oil.  Put chopped garlic, celery, onions and bacons.  Sauté them until it sweats, then add potatoes cauliflower and herbs.  Sauté for a couple of minutes and add chicken broth and bring it to boil.   Turn the hear down to low.  Add cream and smoked fish chunks.  Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.  

Smoked fish

a half of cod or salmon filets cut into 2 inch/5cm filets (about 4 filets each)

Spicy Rub; salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, paprika and cumin

Sweet Rub; salt, pepper, brown sugar, garlic powder

Herby Rub; salt, pepper, finely chopped rosemary and thyme, zested lemon skin.

(adjust the amount of each spice based on your preference)

Brine the fish in water with some brown sugar, salt, pepper corns and garlic cloves for a few hours.

Get your smoker ready.  Cover the fish with rub mixtures and smoke fish for about 15-20 minutes for thick filet and 10-15 minutes for thin filet.

I found this instruction for smoking without a smoker  on YouTube.