Seafood Chowder

Yesterday for my birthday brunch, my dear friend Patti gave me a big hunk of smoked salmon to make a frittata.  It was delicious. But after slicing all the salmon thinly, I was left with a big piece of salmon skin, which was fully of smoky salmon flavor, but inedible on its own. Patti and I wondered if it might make a decent soup, with some potatoes and leek.

And then today, I remembered that the last time I had eaten lobster, I had cooked the shells and made a stock and put it in the freezer, and forgotten about it.  So I sauteed an onion and a few cloves of garlic in a couple of tablespoons of butter, added the frozen lobster stock, and diced about 5 medium potatoes and chopped one large leek, added the smoked salmon skin, and cooked everything together for an hour or so. 

Then I remembered I had some vacuum-frozen pollack fillets in the freezer, as well.  So I defrosted them, cut them into bite-sized pieces, and added them to the soup, along with about a cup of corn I froze in September.  Then I made a white sauce with some butter, flour, and milk, thickened it, and added it to the soup, along with a teaspoon of sea salt.  Since I'd cooked all the flavor out of the salmon skin, I took it out and fed it to the dog, who gobbled it up gratefully.

So now my home is filled with the glorious smell of seafood chowder.  I can't really give you an exact recipe, because I didn't measure anything, but it is the most delicious soup I've made in ages.