Trying to Eat Cheap: Dinner, Day 26—Gilfeather turnip soup, part 3

This is my third post about the same recipe, Gilfeather Turnip Soup with Sea Legs. First the recipe, posted 4 years ago. Then, a little how-to followup posted last month. Well, we had it for dinner again tonight. Let me say once more, this soup is So Good! The sweet strange tang of the turnip goes perfectly with the smooth seafood bites here and there. The potato and carrot give everything heft and carry the game along. This is a fine soup. I mentioned last month that I used "an excellent crab from Vietnam in a refrigerated foil pouch." We got that again this time and I'll document it for the record.



Here's the drawback: This stuff is expensive. At $5.99 for a 6 ounce pouch the crab comes in at around $16 bucks a pound. That's a lot more than the $1.39/lb that I pay for aduki beans. But then there's my 80/20 rule (that I just made up) about frugal cooking: it's OK to have an expensive thing if it's going to be a small percentage of the whole. The turnip, potato, carrot, onion, and box of chicken broth (You di'n't! Yes, I did) cost about another $6.00. Then there was the ubiquitous toast side dish.* So let's call this about $14. I think that's the least frugal yet...

Because I'm posting so much about Gilfeather turnips, I thought I'd do some research on them using the Google machine. I found that they come from Wardsboro, Vermont, and are celebrated there annually at a turnip festival. They are beloved by both deer and humans and are said to taste just a little bit better after a good frost. One site said that these were "developed and named after John Gilfeather," which made me giggle. There are a few good-looking recipes at this soup/scalloped/soufflé post: Gilfeather Turnip Recipes from "The Heart of New England."



*Seems that if it's not lentils with me this time of year, it's toast. We found some really good Irish butter to go on it though, to replace the golden farm butter that's now out of season. Here's a shot of said farm butter by the way. It really is this color! I love the clover leaf pressed into it.