Gluten Dairy Free Smoked Salmon Chowder

Ok so I have a confession, I have food intolerances.... this is quite a sad thing. Alas for me there is no eating of beef, eggs, certain dairy (cow's milk anything softer than cheddar), asparagus, pineapple, banana, gluten,  or gasp...oysters (thats a sad thing for a daughter of Dionysus). I found all this out in late June. My acupuncturist (who is a goddess) had a theory that I had allergies and referred me to a naturopath (who is also amazing by the by... and if you want either of their info let me know). He confirmed after testing that I should not eat (or should at least severely limit my eating of) the previously mentioned items. Thank all the divinities that I can still have pork.

So that has lead to some creative cooking on my part.

Today I had a craving for smoked salmon chowder, the usual recipe for this contains several things, flour and copious amounts of cream, milk and butter which I should not have. So I came up with the following:

1 Shallot
1/2 Red Onion
4 cloves Garlic
4 slices smoked bacon
1 piece smoked salmon (I used sockeye) it was probably about 1/2 lb next time I will use more
1 1/2 gallon carton of SoDelicious Coconut Milk Plain (So far it tastes the most like milk to me)
6 medium sized potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Dill
Cayenne

Prep:
Slice up your bacon into small pieces.
Chop up your onion, garlic, shallot. Peel and cut your potatoes into medium bite sized pieces.

In a 3 quart pot (I prefer one that is wider than deeper) sauté your bacon till it is mostly crispy (remove from pan to plate with a spoon, leaving all the tasty oil in the pan ( so it wont over cook)
Sauté the onion, garlic and shallots till opaque, put potato pieces in the pot and sauté for a minute.
Pour in Coconut milk
Break up the salmon into the soup.
Season to taste with the salt, pepper, paprika, dill and cayenne (or whatever other seasonings you like)

Bring to Boil, then reduce temperature to a simmer for about 1 hour. Stirring now and then. By the end of the hour the potatoes should be soft. I then used a hand held mixer to run through the soup and mash the potatoes up. You can use an emulsion blender but this will puree the bacon and salmon as well.

Simmer away for about another hour so the liquid reduces and you have a nice thick creamy soup.
Adjust spices as needed.

Simple Joys

Is there anything better than the smell of bacon, shallots and garlic sizzling away in a pan?.... ok well I can think of quite a few... but that smell is up there on my list of awesome. Last night I made a saute of the above with a little spinach and then a nice fillet of Coho Salmon that I had dusted with dried ginger, paprika salt and pepper, then drizzled with a little lime juice.

Also on my list of awesome, is Karaoke with my friends. Don't scoff, I love karaoke! I will tell you why. It is one of the few places as a performer where it doesn't really matter. You can go up and suck, be off key, totally botch it and it doesnt matter, really, it's about having fun. More often than not no one is listening to you anyway. (Though I have a guilty pleasure of knowing I'm doing really well when the bar goes silent when I sing...)  My friends and I go pretty much every Monday, have a couple drinks and sing as much as possible.  I have a confession, I am perhaps a little odd. About 7 months ago I decided to go through and sing everysong I know alphabetically by song title, I am just about to reach the N section. I consider it sort of a ongoing performance art piece. I apparently know a lot of songs. It has been raised (constructive critisism perhaps) that I seem to know mostly ballads, jazz and other pretty things... ah well. I will work on it. Sing what makes you happy.

What is the point of this post? A reminder to find the joys in the simple things. I need this reminder, as the days grow darker, the economy continues to be uncertain and I struggle to pay those pesky student loans and bills, boys break my heart and things seem bleak. It's important to pamper yourself a little, eat well and surround yourself with friends as much as possible.

Harvest Pulled Pork

It's fall and I love cooking seasonally inspired food, one of my favorite treats is pulled pork, last night I created the following recipe, its beautiful and rich, sweet and savory with colors of orange and green and brown, perfect to celebrate the season. Enjoy! (a note about my cooking... I'm not exact, I'm more of a throw things in a pot and hope it turns out (thankfully it usually does) so measurements are not precise... adjust as you like)

Ingredients:
1 boneless pork shoulder
dry mustard 1 Tbs
paprika 1 Tbs
cayenne1 Tbs
sea salt 1Tbs
black pepper 1 Tbs
apple cider vinegar 1 cup
Sugar  1/2 cup
Worcester Sauce 3 Tbs 
Elephant Garlic (the whole bulb, peeled) (this is the large giant garlic, when roasted it is sweet, almost like butter... super yummy)
Orange Bell Pepper (2, sliced in strips)
Anaheim Pepper (This is a green pepper, generally sweeter than a bell, but also with a little zip, 2 sliced in strips)
Olive Oil



Remove pork shoulder from refrigerator and remove from wrapping and let rest.
In a bowl combine mustard, paprika, cayenne, sea salt and pepper.
Drizzle meat with Olive oil and then rub in spices thoroughly.  Let meat rest 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 F

While meat is marinating, slice your peppers. I did the orange peppers in long strips lengthwise of the pepper and the Anaheim in shorter strips cross wise (it doesn't much matter though they will mostly dissolve in the finish product).

In a bowl combine cider vinegar, sugar and Worcester  sauce

In a Dutch Oven (I used cast iron), on stove top, drizzle with Olive oil generously and turn on heat high.
Brown all sides of pork shoulder. turn off stove top.
Place Peppers and Garlic in the pot. Pour Cider/sugar/Worcester liquid over meat. 
Cover with lid
Place in oven.

Cook for 4 hours. I checked it every hour and turned the meat. When its done the meat should "pull" and fall apart easily, all liquid will be evaporated into the meat.

I served it with brown basmati rice that I had seasoned with more dry mustard, paprika and cayenne.
To drink: a Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale.

An Introduction

You may ask yourself, why Dionysus? Wasn't he a drunk? Is this going to be some blog about drunkenness and debauchery? To answer your questions:

Dionysus is the Greek god of wine, agriculture, and fertility of nature, he is also the patron god of the Greek stage. (He was also known as Bacchus by the Romans). Why identify with him? because I am an actress, I love the theatre,  I love wine (in moderation), food - whether I'm cooking or eating out, travel and generally the finer things in life. Children (we hope) learn from their parents mistakes and honor the family traditions.... that is not to say I don't make mistakes quite frequently and certainly I've had an occasional night of drunkenness, and I'll admit maybe a night or two ... or more... of debauchery... and if I'm honest,  I will probably do it again.

So what is this Blog about? theatre, food, travel and other general adventures.