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Irish Salmon Chowder

Name: Irish Salmon Chowder
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients: 500 g Salmon fillet, skinned; 500 g Potatoes; 250 g Leek; 150 g Onion; 100 g Celery stalks; 800 ml Fish stock; 250 ml Heavy cream; 120 ml Dry white wine; 40 g Unsalted butter; 15 g Fresh dill; 1 leaves Bay leaves; 1 tbsp Lemon juice; 2 tsp Fine sea salt; 1 tsp Ground black pepper

A gentle cream soup of leek, potato and salmon, thickened only by the potatoes breaking down. The fish goes in at the very end and poaches in the residual heat, which is what keeps it in flakes rather than threads.

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 30 min
Difficulty: Easy

About this dish

Chowder came to Ireland from the fishing ports of the Atlantic coast, where the cream and potatoes were whatever the farm gave and the fish was whatever the boats brought in. Salmon makes the version served in Cork and Donegal kitchens, and the Irish habit is to keep it a soup rather than a stew — thickened by the starch of its own potatoes, never by flour.

Gluten-free
Not vegetarian because of Salmon fillet, skinned, Fish stock
Contains dairy because of Heavy cream, Unsalted butter

Ingredients

4servings

500gSalmon fillet, skinned
500gPotatoes
250gLeek
150gOnion
100gCelery stalks
800mlFish stock
250mlHeavy cream
120mlDry white wine
40gUnsalted butter
15gFresh dill
1leafBay leaves
1tbspLemon juice
2tspFine sea salt
1tspGround black pepper

Instructions

Melt the butter over low heat and sweat the sliced leek, onion and celery for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and sweet without a hint of colour.
10 min
Tip: Colour is the enemy here. A browned base turns a pale, delicate chowder into something that tastes of fried onion, and there is no taking it back out.
Pour in the white wine, add the bay leaf and let it bubble for 4–5 minutes until the sharpness has cooked off.
5 min
Tip: Wine added to a cream soup must reduce first. Poured in near the end, the acid would curdle the cream the moment it meets it.
Add the diced potatoes and the fish stock. Simmer for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft enough to crush against the side of the pan. Crush about a third of them there.
15 min
Tip: That crushed third is the only thickener the soup gets. It is why this chowder is gluten-free without any substitution — the body comes from the potato, not a roux.
Cut the salmon into large cubes. Take the pan off the boil so the liquid barely trembles, slide in the fish and the cream, and leave it for 5–6 minutes without stirring.
6 min
Tip: The salmon poaches in the residual heat, not over a flame. Boiled or stirred, it breaks into threads and clouds the soup; left alone, it holds together in flakes.
Fish out the bay leaf. Stir in the dill and lemon juice, then season carefully with salt and pepper. Serve with soda bread.
4 min
Tip: The lemon is added off the heat and last of all: it lifts the cream, but boiled it would split it. Salt at the end too — the stock and the fish have already brought their own.