Another late October day, another day called off work. After some internal debate between staying home and accomplishing things, or going hunting, staying home won out. I was going to cook dinner, but I was also indecisive about what to set out. Last night was chicken, and I didn’t have enough time for a venison roast to thaw. Fish it was.
I was originally going to just scale the little guys and bake them whole, but Matt dislikes most bone-in meat. There isn’t much to them, so, chowder it was. I found this recipe for fish chowder after a bit of searching. Of course, I ended up modifying it. I used Yukon gold potatoes from my garden, I added sweet corn, I used a little bit of chicken base instead of clam juice, and obviously, I used bluegill/pumpkinseed in lieu of cod. I was also minus the cream called for in the recipe, so I whisked a few spoonfuls of sour cream into the lactose-free 2% milk I did have. Filleting the fish proved challenging, given how small they were.
Tiny bluegill fillets
Cooking the potatoes after making roux, while Matt and I filleted fish.
Fish skins.
It came out really, really well. Not too thick, either. There wasn’t much fish in it, given how small the fillets were. But the sour cream and sweet corn really rounded things out.
I also made biscuits from scratch.
Fish, potatoes, and corn.
I also made some apple crisp bars with a dash of bourbon in the filling. They also came out well.
And we still have lots of bluegills and pumpkinseeds left from that big trip up north in August.
Hunt/Fish/Play 
Yum! I love the addition of the corn. I just made a batch of my roasted poblano and corn chowder. The corn really adds a fresh touch.
One of my favorite soups my mom made was tomato corn chowder, which gave me the idea. Roasted poblano anything sounds great- I love roasted peppers.
Yum! We eat chowder at least weekly. Usually with salmon or cod. Check out the book called 50 Chowders. So many recipes. Love Russel Reserve too.
This is the first chowder I’ve attempted. Getting salmon here can get pricey, though we do have the two we caught on Lake Michigan. Cod here is alright, but an old college friend once told me fresh cod blows anything frozen or shipped out of the water. And he was from Iceland, so I believe him. I’d believe you guys too, given the whole Alaska-dwelling business.
Yep, fresh cod is the best. Or fresh frozen cod (we still have cod in the freezer from 18 months ago, believe it or not. And it’s still great).
Salmon on the great lakes? I had no idea those existed! What type? I’m assuming Atlantic?
We caught small King (Chinook?) salmon. But there are also Coho. They can get to be up to 20 or 30 pounds. They were introduced to Lake Mich & the Great Lakes in general in the 60s to keep the alewife population in check. We caught them about two-three miles off shore, trolling in about 200 feet of water. I wrote about it here
Awesome! Had no idea they were there. Good post. Thanks
That looks delicious
It was great, even re-heated for lunch.
im going to make this with redfish soon!
I saw that you had a bunch of them!