I love a good chowder and haven’t had any in quite a while. So I threw together this New England inspired soup with an eye for making it light and healthy, but very tasty. I started with a medium onion chopped finely. This was sweated in a hot pan with a splash of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Once the onions began to turn translucent I threw in a good healthy dose of chopped garlic and a couple cups of finely diced cabbage along with two finely diced potatoes and a cup of frozen corn. After sautéing for a few minutes I added 3 cups of skim milk and 3 cups of water. I also seasoned the broth with some clam dashi powder to give it more of a seafood flavor. I also sprinkled in a tsp or so of Old Bay seasoning. I let this simmer for about 15 minutes until the vegetables were thoroughly cooked. At the end I added 1 can (~15 oz) of pink salmon, 8 oz of imitation crab meat, about 20 peeled raw shrimp and 6 oz of chopped up pollock filets. This was cooked for an additional 8-10 minutes just until the fish was cooked through. Even though the chowder was low fat with all the fish and seafood it had a wonderful texture and an even more wonderful hearty flavor. It was very satisfying.
Fish and Seafood Chowder
Seafood and Barley Risotto
This evening I have been prepping some things for tomorrow’s thanksgiving feast. I was trying to decide what I could make easily for dinner. Then I happened upon a bag of pearled barley in my pantry. Hmm, what to do with it? I wonder if I could make a risotto out of it. It would be healthier than rice. As long as I could get that creamy texture from the starch, it should be ok. So, I sautéed some onions and garlic in olive oil until softened and then added a couple cups of the barley. I added a few cups of heated seaweed broth I had leftover from a shabu shabu dinner last week. The first picture shows the risotto in the early stages after the first addition of broth. I also added some dried thyme, dried parsley and some Spanish saffron to flavor the dish.
I continued to cook it slowly adding a cup of broth whenever it got dry. This took about 50 minutes until the barley became tender and a creamy texture was developed. I then added two tilapia filets (thawed and cut into pieces), about a cup of small frozen bay scallops and about 20 medium sized shrimp. I made sure to have enough liquid present so I could cook it covered for about 5 minutes. This was the result!
The risotto has a wonderful toothsome texture while maintaining a creamy quality that you would expect from a risotto. Not exactly the same as an excellent starchy rice but pretty good. The tilapia was nicely mild enough in flavor so as to not overwhelm the subtle saffron aromas. The seaweed broth provided a nice flavor of the sea. I forgot to mention the broth was also seasoned with a bit of a clam dashi (broth powder) that I picked up at my local Asian market. Overall I would have to say this was a successful and satisfying substitute for a classic risotto.