Eggplant Caviar

It was cool yesterday and it felt like soup weather.  I was going to make a sausage & lentil soup (which I will probably make tonight) but there was salmon on sale at the Publix.  Mmmmmmmmm, chowda.  It came out great.  Here's the recipe if interested.

1/4 Lb bacon

1 T olive oil                   

1/4 of an onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled & diced

2 ribs celery, diced

3 T unsalted butter

4 T flour

1/4 cup sherry or white wine

8 oz bottle of clam juice

3 cups whole milk

1.5 LB fresh salmon, skinned & diced into 1 inch cubes

5 ears fresh scraped corn or 1 8 oz bag frozen corn

1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

1 T dijon mustard

1 cup heavy cream

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat a heavy stockpot & add olive oil & bacon.  Sweat bacon for about 5 minutes over medium heat until theres a nice amount of fat in the pot.  Add onion, carrot & celery, season with salt & pepper & sweat until veggies are slightly soft & bacon is starting to get crispy.  Add  butter and once its melted add the flour.  Cook over low heat until it starts to smell a little nutty, this is how you know the starchyness has cooked out of the flour.  Add sherry & reduce slightly, mixture will become thick so keep stirring.  Add clam juice and bring to a boil.  Add milk and bring back to a boil.  Reduce to simmer & add salmon.  Salmon will poach pretty quickly, so after about 3-4 minutes add corn & dill.  Stir in heavy cream & mustard & season to taste.  This soup needs a good amount of salt at the end.  Enjoy!

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