Chef Doru's Blog

This weekend we had another wonderful family dinner with our dear Nika, Kia and their parents. I prepared salmon soup and four kinds of chicken wings from my “repertoire” and Violet made two delicious cakes. On this post I’ll describe just the salmon soup and I’ll have to get back with the cake recipes.

I wanted to do a new soup for my dearest guests so after few days of research, I’ve decided to prepare the Salmon Velvet Soup after a recipe from Eat Well 101.

Salmon Velvet Soup

Ingredients:

170 g of fresh salmon
250 g smoked salmon
12 baby carrots
1 parsley root
4 celery stalks
1 medium size spanish onion
2 big Yukon gold potatoes
1 cup white wine (I used 1 cup of grape juice and a splash of vinegar)
4 cups vegetable stock
100 g whipping cream
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
50 g of salmon eggs
150 g of smoked salmon

In a soup pot heat the oil and sweat the onion for 3-4 minutes. Add some salt and pepper to taste and then all the other vegetables and cook for another 5 min or until all the oil was absorbed. Add all the other ingredients (except the salmon eggs and the 150 g smoked salmon which are for decorating) and boil them for 40-45 min. Put everything in a blender or use a hand blender for a smooth result. I decorated the soup bowl with salmon eggs and diced smoked salmon and served with fresh french baguette.

Salmon Cheddar Soup with Lobster Mushrooms (alaskapublic.org)
Quick Bites for Busy Babes (ditzsavant.wordpress.com)
A Fabulous Salmon Bisque (utterlyruins.wordpress.com)
Paleo Salmon Chowder (dit-elle.org)
Salmon Chowder (healthyrecipes4fitness.wordpress.com)

For a long time I was thinking to make some granola bars at home but I never had enough time to do the research. After few days, I chose two recipes which I tried already twice in one week: Oatmeal Granola Bar and Cranberry Spice Granola Bar. I like the second recipe and it’s even easier to prepare. The first time I didn’t want to change anything on the original recipe, but after, you can do so many variations…. A word of advise, I strongly recommend the real vanilla bean instead of the regular “pure” or not vanilla extract. Other than that, be creative and use any dry fruits, oatmeal or nuts you may like, pour more cinnamon for a stronger flavour, etc, etc.