Screaming Summer with Summer Savoury Corn Chowder with Wild Salmon
Green Plum Cooking School – Saturday, July 24th
I’m on Mexican time, today. Well, really Mexican thyme. I just got back from a little vacation in Yelapa (no, not the new “beach food” restaurant here in Houston on Richmond). Yelapa, Mexico might as well be an island, since no cars can get there. Only boats. And then only two or three times a day. There is no infrastructure to speak of. But I stayed in a beautiful, open “flat” called Casa Pericos, overlooking the water. Our only souvenir, except for a hat for me, was the exoskeleton of a scorpion. Yes, they have poisonous scorpions, tarantulas and snakes aplenty. At night, I had to wear a spelunking light on my forehead to watch out for the creepy crawlies. Luckily, there was just the dead one. It helped me get through customs, oddly enough. They were looking for drugs at every juncture of our return and when the customs agents ran across the jar holding the scorpion skeleton, that was as far as they went! My Mexican sea salt was safe.
Starting from scratch...
This morning in class, I am making a Summer Savoury Corn Chowder with Salmon. We used to call the summer savoury herb “mountain thyme.” Honestly, for years, I didn’t know what the summer savoury herb was – I’ve never ordered it from my produce vendor, herb man or local grower, but it is in Alice’s book a few times. Apparently, there’s a summer and a winter variety. Hum…it’s summer all the thyme here…. (Sorry, folks, I couldn’t help myself.)
Speaking of summer, I tell the class about Chef Seth Siegel-Gardner’s Just August Project. It is a “pop up” restaurant in Houston that will operate only for the month of August. This is a trend that’s been happening all over the country, but this is the first one in Texas that I know of. It’s exciting and fun but I have yet to be able to get a reservation myself.
I get started on the chowder. The class is too quiet today, so I tell them they can chit chat. This isn’t real school, it’s a communal thing.
I’m cutting the corn so the whole kernel comes off and then I scrape the cob to get all the “milk” out. If I had time (which I don’t…I have savoury! Ha ha, I crack myself up!), I would infuse a liquid with the corn “bones” and then grate some of the cobs to get some grated milky kernels in there – this gives loads of flavor, which is the point. Good corn, simple chowder – it just shouts summer!
A few of the corn kernels skitter around the front row. My friend Donna mentions that she once saw a chef use the hole in the middle of a Bundt pan to hold the corn cob steady while he cut the kernels off the cob; the kernels fell obediently into the Bundt pan, of course. I say out loud (before I think to stop myself), “That is soooo gay.” Probably the wrong audience for that comment, but I figure it’s OK because I am gay. Then I say, “Where is my Bundt pan? Actually, I like getting corn on the floor, but thanks for participating.”
For this chowder, you could use smoked paprika, which would be nice, but I don’t happen to have any at the moment. I start the soup with water as a base, but you could use stock or milk or both. I sauté 1015 onions with the corn and the potato and some spices. It starts to smell good and feel good.
Someone asks if this chowder could be vegan. Of course it can! I suggest using okra and shell beans instead of the salmon. Should we put this one in the cookbook? Of course we should! As I said, it just screams summer!
I am chopping more savoury to garnish. Miss Priss, my assistant, stuck some marjoram in the bunch, so I’ll use that, too. A squeeze of fresh lime would be nice but I’m limed out from Yelapa – lots of great local limes!
For the fish, we use wild caught salmon. Using Copper River salmon here would be overkill but it would be great for a chowder that is more of a meal. If I can’t get wild-caught salmon, I will use Arctic Char or Steelhead Trout instead. The Char and the Steelhead are a little less oily and strong- tasting; the Copper River salmon is like eating a steak from the sea. But it’s summer! And the salmon are running, so salmon, it is.
Meanwhile, we have served the chowder in record time. It would be really good the next day after all the flavors have absorbed into each other and jived. Someone asks if she could omit the onions. “Why would you want to do that?” I ask. Turns out she likes onion rings, just not onions. I suggest using different onions, like scallions or shallots or the 1015′s, which are sweeter, and to caramelize them or fry them and garnish the chowder with onion rings.
You may use one of my recipes to make something but this is cooking, make it to your taste. I may be the tour guide, but I don’t always know where we’re going. Just use all that summer has to offer – after all, it’s summer thyme!
NOTE: The recipes used in my Green Plum Cooking School classes can be found in my online cookbook, “Eat Where Your Food Lives,” available for purchase at http://www.ChefMonicaPope.com)
