#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR JO-ANN CARSON AND KILLER SALMON CHOWDER

Growing up, Jo-Ann Carson she dreamed of traveling the world like James Bond, searching for relics like Indiana Jones, and finding true love, so it's no surprise that in her Mata Hari Series she combines elements of adventure, danger and steamy romance. In her Vancouver Blues Series she slides into the realm of Urban Noir and explores the dark side of the city. These  books are mainstream suspense with strong romantic elements and are very-Vancouver. Learn more about Jo-Ann and her books at her website. 

This is a recipe that I learned when I lived up on the Haida Gwaii, a remote and pristine wilderness area of Canada often referred to as the northern Galapagos Islands. In my book, Black Cat Blues it’s served at the local restaurant on Granville Island called The Scuttlebutt.

Smokey’s Killer Salmon Chowder

Ingredients:

a few T. oil

1 medium cooking onion

4-1/4 cups water

2-4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 can (or equivalent) lima beans

2 fresh carrots, thinly sliced

2 stalks celery

4 cooked sliced bacon strips, cut into 1/2" pieces

4 cups milk

6 T. flour

1 lb. can of salmon (or equivalent fresh)

In a large, deep skillet sauté sliced onion in oil until it’s soft. Add cooked bacon.

Add flour and stir until it cooks. Add 1/4 cup water and stir until it thickens to make roux. Add more water if necessary.

Boil 4 cups of water. Add the roux and stir. Add potatoes, beans, carrots, celery and the fluid from the canned salmon. Add more water if it’s too thick.

Cook twenty minutes or so, until the potatoes are cooked. Season with salt and pepper.

Flake salmon with a fork and add to above. Always add fish at the very end of any recipe, because you don’t want to overcook it. This salmon is already cooked. You are just heating it up.

Add milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat. Serve.

I often garnish this with either shredded mozzarella or shredded cheddar cheese.

Black Cat Blues

A nightmare waits in the alley…

Stabbed in an alley behind the Black Cat Blues bar, private investigator Jimmy Daniels clings to life just long enough to tell Maggy Malone a secret.

Maggy, a curvy, blond, blues singer with a sultry voice and a razor sharp mind is starting her life over after a lousy marriage. Reluctant at first to get involved with a murder, she tells no one the secret.

But when the murderer stalks her, she changes her mind.

Maggy teams up with Jimmy’s brother Logan, a handsome suit with a tidy view of life. They figure out the killer is looking for gold buried on Gabriola Island by the notorious cult-leader Brother XII.

The body count rises. Will Maggy catch him? Or will she be his next victim?

And the lady sings the blues…

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