This bowl of smoky salmon goodness was inspired by a post on Taste Food, a fellow Food52 contributor (her blog is beautiful, you should look around). I saw the flour and the cream she calls for and felt worried my tummy wouldn’t deal with it. I had the stomach flu a few weeks ago and it took forever to recover from it. I had a craving for cheese and went a little overboard, then paid for it. I picked up a bottle of acidophilus probiotic, both the chewable (dormant) and a liquid (live culture) forms. It will take time for this stuff to work but I’m going to give it a shot – anything to feel better again.
Since I’m avoiding dairy for a couple weeks and saw this recipe on Taste Food’s blog, I knew I had to try a dairy-free version. If dairy is out, might as well replace the glutenous flour with gluten-free all purpose flour mix. The potato does help thicken the stew (can’t really call it a chowder without cream, can I?).
It just tastes healthy!
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 of a fennel bulb, diced
- 1/2 white onion, diced
- 2 tsp GF flour
- 2 to 2 1/2 cups water
- 1 large Russet potato, peeled, diced
- 1/3 pound smoked salmon (not the paper-thin sheets, a hunk of fish!)
- salt and pepper
Saute the fennel and onion in the oil over medium heat in a small soup pot. Add the flour and let it cook, stirring the pot. Add 2 cups of water to start with, you can add more to reach your desired consistency. Add the potato and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn the heat to low and crumble the smoked salmon (in bite-sized chunks) in to the pot. Let the salmon infuse in the stew before adding salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with the fennel fronds. Serves two.
Easy, eh?
midnitechef 
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