It was an event in December I was truly excited about, a “supermarket raid” organized by new food brand Contadina. Yes, the one with Nigella Lawson as an ambassador.
Our bunch of bloggers were told to gather early at Robinsons Selections in Venice Piazza Mall with instructions clear beforehand. Keep in mind a tomato-based recipe using Contadina as one of the ingredients and shop for the needed stuff in the supermarket.
Needless to say, everyone was in an upbeat mood.
Like most moms, grocery shopping is a therapy for me. I get a kick out of scouting for new products and even reading product labels 🙂
Society photog Ryan Ong documented the event and he took shots of us while shopping. I should have dressed up more casually, and I don’t know what got into me that I wore heels that day. Yaiks, it wasn’t so comfortable. Maybe because most of the time now, am a blogger wearing pajamas at home and going out is a reason to celebrate and get dressed, lol.
Anyway, I put in a lot of seafood in my cart because I will attempt to cook bouillabaisse – you know, that French stew or soup that’s hard to spell and pronounce haha. Dictionary.com said you say it as bool-yuh-bes or boo-ya-bes. Hmmm, ok.
I have a lot of Contadina stash at home. Their ready-made pasta sauces are divine for just opening on a busy week night. It’s reasonably-priced at only P118 for a 420-gram bottle. But I decided to try a bouillabaisse recipe because I wanted to use my supply of Contadina canned tomatoes. I opened one and wow, they’re really high quality and tasty Roma tomatoes from California. Would you believe each can is only P69 pesos??!
I loved how my bouillabaisse dish turned out. Am a believer in the lycopene, cancer-fighting power of tomatoes and my family could eat more of this to be healthy.
Here’s my bouillabaisse recipe hack:
1. Gather all the seafood you are going to use for the dish. I had mussels, dory fish fillet and shrimps. I boiled them all in a pan to make a tasty stock, making sure it’s not overcooked.
2. In another pan, I sauteed garlic, sliced onions, leeks and celery in my favorite Contadina olive oil. Then poured the contents of one can Contadina crushed tomatoes. Added part of the seafood stock and simmered it all for a bit to reduce the sauce. Then I put in the mussels, shrimps and fish and cook it some more.
3. Towards the end of cooking, I drizzled some wine (red or white, it doesn’t matter) and a few more drops of olive oil. Make sure you season the dish with salt, pepper and other seasonings to your liking.
I plated my soup and added a teaspoon of bottled Contadina pesto sauce per serving. I must admit, it leveled up the taste.
There you go. Have a healthy Happy Holidays! Bon appetit! 🙂
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