Everything from a Salmon III: Chowdah

Thursday 5 July

The whole poached salmon made its final appearance, as chowder. While breaking up the salmon at the end of the first meal, we save the poaching liquid, leftover cream sauce, mirepoix, any scrappy bits of salmon, and any platter juice in one big jar. What I love about this is that it's so rich that it congeals into a sort of fish jelly.

So into a pot go some onions, to brown lightly in butter, or with a rasher or two of snipped-up bacon, if you have it - we didn't. Then add diced potatoes, with just enough water to barely cover. Cook them with lots of salt till tender. In the meantime, take the three cobs of bi-color corn you had deliberately left over from vedge-fest, the day before yesterday, and scrape them off the cobs with a knife. When everything else is tender and done, add them, all their juice, and the fish jelly with all the stuff in it, plus any scraps of salmon that may have been hiding elsewhere. When it's hot, add milk to the consistency that seems right to you, thickened, of course, with lollops of cream. And when that's hot, pour it into bowls and put your head down in it.

This means we've had seafood every night from last Thursday on, except for Tuesday's vegetables. Oh, and we didn't finish all the chowder. Like Achilles and the Tortoise or Napoleon brandy, there's always just a little bit left.