Spicy Smoked Salmon Chowder

Happy Saturday! How did yours shape up? Mine was pretty good and ended with this spicy smoked salmon chowder with Alaskan beer bread.

Since I don’t feel pressured to get up and go to spin class at 9 am now that my friend no longer teaches, Saturday, for the first time in almost 7 years means sleeping in. That’s what I did today. I whipped up some muffins (stay tuned!) and headed out for errands, and then died a little in yoga sculpt.

In other things to discuss: World Market. I simultaneously love and hate it. Love it because they have everything I want in life in one store. Hate it because I went in for beer and came out $70 poorer. Whoops. And I got caught in the rain on the walk home. But I did get some cool decorative keys. Like I said, everything I want in life.

I love World Market particularly for its alcohol selection because I can buy beer in smaller quantities. I don’t drink when I’m home alone, but every now and again I need a few bottles of beer for something special, and if I buy a 6 pack, that six pack will be sitting in my fridge until someone else drinks it. Sometimes, months. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I have some MGD in there that’s at least a year old. Maybe time to purge.

Anyway, today was such a lone beer occasion. Beer bread. Sounds good, right?

Yup. I thought so. I found the recipe for Alaskan Beer Bread when perusing recipes and I happened up this one by Alaskan Brewing Company. According to them, Alaska has a long history of brewing. From the early explorers through the Gold Rush, Alaskans are a big fan of locally made craft brews.

Guess what– so is Chicago! Craft beer it seems has exploded around here lately. Despite this…I didn’t use a local craft and I did change up the recipe a bit, mostly because I 1) ran out of self-rising flour and 2) could not find the aforementioned Alaskan beer. No matter, what I used a Sam Adams Fat Jack DOUBLE PUMPKIN because…duh, it’s pumpkin season. Also, according to the original recipe: this is a great bread to have on a cold evening after a long day of walking through the bogs and beaver swamps after the moose.

I didn’t do either of those things. My life is boring.

Anyway, my adjustments worked splendidly (the third time time) and the beer was the perfect accompaniment for some spicy smoked salmon chowder.  I say third time because the first time I made this for Blueberry and we ate it so fast I didn’t take pictures. The second time I tried to be adventurous with my gluten free flour mix and it was an absolute fail  So, don’t do that. The third time, which you see here, was another success with normal gluten-full bread flour.

You may have heard that Alaska is pretty famous for salmon and Alaska’s cold water seafood is the centerpiece of Alaskan cuisine. According to Alaska Wild Berry Products, Alaskan salmon is one of the most important foods here and is often served as smoked salmon, cured salmon, salmon jerky, and even sweetened Indian salmon candy. I love smoked salmon and surely didn’t need an excuse to eat it.

I adapted a few recipes and mine is dairy free. You can swap out the cashew milk that I’ve used below for evaporated milk or half-and-half. As you wish.

My whole apartment smells like fall goodness. Wanna come over?