SEAFOOD CHOWDER
W/ HOME-BAKED BREAD
W/ HOME-BAKED BREAD
Total Cost: $4.74/serving
Total Preparation Time: 1 hr 15 min
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As the day wore off and the residents of a growing lake community succumbed to early summer's heat, I plotted another outing to Real Canadian Superstore to obtain pricing on ingredients for my next affordable meal.
Owned by the largest Canadian food retailer with more than 1,050 grocery stores sprawled across the nation, it offers a great variety of conventional and organic produce at competitive prices, earning its status of a prime shopping destination among many Canadians.
Shopping at Superstore is familiar, and that prompted the decision to base this and subsequent recipes from GOURMET MEALS FOR $5 OR UNDER series on its product offering and pricing, despite my personal divergence from nationwide conglomerates in favour of small local producers.
At onset, the primary goal of the series was to prove that eating healthfully is neither bland nor prohibitively expensive. However, it was equally important to reach a large audience of Canadians, making it essential to relate to the shopping habits of an average working- to middle-class family. Therefore, presenting meal concepts with cost reference to a favoured one-stop shopping location seemed appropriate.
A multitude of equally grand ideas roaming in an unstructured fashion, I did my best to prepare for the trip ahead and within hours had an exhaustive price list to help determine the cost of a new delectable dish. Inspired by my husband's recent fishing expedition, much of his catch still in the freezer, I resolved to make seafood chowder with a side of home-baked bread.
The process began by browsing the Internet in search of visual stimuli. A comfort food for many, seafood chowder, with and without the use of dairy, appeared in hundreds of colourful images, provoking my salivary glands to respond in a natural manner. Suddenly, I sprang into action by arranging my work space and arming myself with a knife, a large cutting board and a pen to record each stage of the imminent mayhem.
First, I minced a collection of vegetables, except for cauliflower, and browned them in a large pot. Having used a fair number of mushrooms that tend to absorb fat quickly, I added a second tablespoon of butter, although some recommend adding water to prevent porous fungi from locking in grease. Within 5 minutes, I reduced the heat to low and added two tablespoons of gelatinized chicken broth and two ounces of Sovereign Opal, a white wine variety unique to the Okanagan Valley.
*Makes 4 servings
It was now time to prepare seafood. Unlike its raw counterparts, canned baby clams were ready to be incorporated into the vegetable mix, so I unloaded the entire can into the pot, stirred and covered with a lid. Having noticed a few bones in my cod and unwilling to overcook my scallops, I decided to process them separately by baking cod and sole wrapped in individual sheets of aluminum foil for 15 minutes and lightly searing scallops in a small frying pan.
Owned by the largest Canadian food retailer with more than 1,050 grocery stores sprawled across the nation, it offers a great variety of conventional and organic produce at competitive prices, earning its status of a prime shopping destination among many Canadians.
Shopping at Superstore is familiar, and that prompted the decision to base this and subsequent recipes from GOURMET MEALS FOR $5 OR UNDER series on its product offering and pricing, despite my personal divergence from nationwide conglomerates in favour of small local producers.
At onset, the primary goal of the series was to prove that eating healthfully is neither bland nor prohibitively expensive. However, it was equally important to reach a large audience of Canadians, making it essential to relate to the shopping habits of an average working- to middle-class family. Therefore, presenting meal concepts with cost reference to a favoured one-stop shopping location seemed appropriate.
A multitude of equally grand ideas roaming in an unstructured fashion, I did my best to prepare for the trip ahead and within hours had an exhaustive price list to help determine the cost of a new delectable dish. Inspired by my husband's recent fishing expedition, much of his catch still in the freezer, I resolved to make seafood chowder with a side of home-baked bread.
The process began by browsing the Internet in search of visual stimuli. A comfort food for many, seafood chowder, with and without the use of dairy, appeared in hundreds of colourful images, provoking my salivary glands to respond in a natural manner. Suddenly, I sprang into action by arranging my work space and arming myself with a knife, a large cutting board and a pen to record each stage of the imminent mayhem.
First, I minced a collection of vegetables, except for cauliflower, and browned them in a large pot. Having used a fair number of mushrooms that tend to absorb fat quickly, I added a second tablespoon of butter, although some recommend adding water to prevent porous fungi from locking in grease. Within 5 minutes, I reduced the heat to low and added two tablespoons of gelatinized chicken broth and two ounces of Sovereign Opal, a white wine variety unique to the Okanagan Valley.
MEASURE
|
WEIGHT
(g)
|
INGREDIENT
|
COST
PER PACKAGE ($)
|
TOTAL
COST ($)
|
COST
PER SERVING ($)*
|
2 tbsp
|
50
|
Unsalted butter
|
4.87/lb
|
0.54
|
|
1
|
30
|
Shallot
|
2.48/283 g
|
0.26
|
|
½
|
50
|
Carrot
|
0.88/lb
|
0.10
|
|
N/A
|
50
|
Celery
|
1.27/bunch (720 g)
|
0.09
|
|
N/A
|
30
|
Orange Bell pepper
|
2.98/lb
|
0.20
|
|
N/A
|
30
|
Yellow Bell pepper
|
2.98/lb
|
0.20
|
|
N/A
|
150
|
White mushrooms
|
2.89/lb
|
0.95
|
|
N/A
|
20
|
Leeks
|
2.98/bunch (480 g)
|
0.12
|
|
N/A
|
150
|
Cauliflower
|
3.28/head (1 kg)
|
0.49
|
|
N/A
|
12
|
Cilantro
|
0.97/bunch (135 g)
|
0.09
|
|
1 cup
|
240 ml
|
10% cream
|
2.89/l
|
0.69
|
|
2 cups
|
480 ml
|
1% milk
|
2.33/l
|
1.12
|
|
3 tbsp
|
28
|
Organic corn flour
|
5.90/kg
|
0.17
|
|
2 oz
|
N/A
|
White wine
|
11.99/bottle (750 ml)
|
0.95
|
|
Salt & spices
|
0.10
|
||||
TOTAL
|
6.07*
|
1.52
|
|||
It was now time to prepare seafood. Unlike its raw counterparts, canned baby clams were ready to be incorporated into the vegetable mix, so I unloaded the entire can into the pot, stirred and covered with a lid. Having noticed a few bones in my cod and unwilling to overcook my scallops, I decided to process them separately by baking cod and sole wrapped in individual sheets of aluminum foil for 15 minutes and lightly searing scallops in a small frying pan.
MEASURE
|
WEIGHT
(g)
|
INGREDIENT
|
COST
PER PACKAGE ($)
|
TOTAL
COST ($)
|
COST
PER SERVING ($)*
|
N/A
|
200
|
Snapper
|
15.90/kg
|
3.18
|
|
N/A
|
150
|
Sole
|
13.89/kg
|
2.08
|
|
1 can
|
142
|
Baby clams
|
2.49/can (142 g)
|
2.49
|
|
N/A
|
125
|
Scallops
|
14.98/400 g
|
4.68
|
|
TOTAL
|
12.43*
|
3.11
|
|||
*Makes 4 servings
Fish in the oven, I added a cup of half-and-half cream and two cups of partly skimmed milk to the vegetable mix and stirred. Although many recipes call for more cream, I chose to use lighter dairy and gluten-free organic corn flour as a thickening agent. One might also choose to use plant-based alternatives like coconut milk or something altogether different like tomato paste.
Separately, I steamed cauliflower stalks and blended them with some of the liquid from the pot before pouring all back in. On one hand, it acted as another thickening agent; on the other, it replaced starchy potatoes that are so often used in chowder recipes. It is also worth mentioning that blending flour with cauliflower eliminated the risk of clumping, had I attempted to manually mix it into the chowder.
Once cooked and deboned, the fish was added to a now aromatic blend of vegetables, dairy and clams, followed by large quartered scallops. The desired thickness was reached within five or six minutes and I turned off the heat.
Earlier in the day, I mixed the bread dough in my Breadman and let it rise for an hour before whipping it into the shape of a baguette and baking it at 375°F in a pre-heated oven for approximately 30 minutes or until fully risen and browned. Unfortunately, I do not own a baguette baking tray, so my bread came out somewhat varied in thickness, but the blunder hardly affected the taste or the visual appeal.
|
MEASURE
|
WEIGHT
(g)
|
INGREDIENT
|
COST
PER PACKAGE ($)
|
TOTAL
COST ($)
|
COST
PER SERVING ($)*
|
|
3 cups
|
132
|
Whole wheat flour
|
8.97/bag (5 kg)
|
0.24
|
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
Egg
|
2.47/dozen
|
0.21
|
|
|
½ cup
|
120 ml
|
1% milk
|
4.44/4 l
|
0.13
|
|
|
½ cup
|
120 ml
|
Water
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
|
3 tsp
|
45 ml
|
Grape seed oil
|
4.53/750 ml
|
0.27
|
|
|
1 tsp
|
2.83
|
Bread machine yeast
|
7.98/227 g
|
0.10
|
|
|
|
|
Salt & sugar
|
|
0.10
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
1.05*
|
0.11
|
|||
*Makes 10 thick slices
Cooled by the time I began cooking my chowder, the bread was ready to be sliced at a moment's notice. Dinner could now be plated, filling and affordable at $4.74 per serving, which can easily be reduced below $4.00 by replacing scallops with shrimp and snapper with basa, tilapia and other less expensive types of fish.
|
|
TOTAL
COST ($)
|
COST
PER SERVING ($)
|
|
GRAND TOTAL
|
19.55
|
4.74
|
Cited Sources:
