I caught up with the recent Rick Stein cookery programmes last week - I had some knitting to do, and I could kill two birds with one stone that way. He's travelling to Mexico and reliving his youth.One of the things he tasted was chowder in a bread bowl.
I looked up his recipe online - and was extremely disappointed to find that he suggested buying the rolls and hollowing them out.
You need fair sized crusty rolls [around 4½"-5" across] and they don't sell any that big round here. So I checked out the recipe I used a few years back- we had enjoyed soup in bread bowls when we were in Boston on our Silver Wedding Trip [13 years ago] My recipe is still pretty good - I cannot recall where online I originally found it. Last time, I made the dough in my breadmaker. This time I kneaded it in my big Kenwood. I made 4 good sized rolls.
My soup was "Fridge Scrape" - using lots of leftovers- some onions and other leftover veg bitsfrom the fridge, 2 pots of frozen stock, plus two small portions of beef and veg casserole from the freezer [defrosted and blitzed in the liquidiser] I put in a generous spoonful of tamarind paste, to give some umami savouriness- then left it "blippin away" in the slow cooker all day. Once it was all cooked, I liquidised it again - served some in my breadbowls, and froze the rest [plus the 2 remaining bowls] A 5" bowl holds around half a pint of thick soup. I love the way that once the soup s all gone, the crusty shell is soft and chewable. Delicious!
On the subject of current TV Cookshows, have you watched Nigella's latest?
Much fuss has been made about the fact that she cooks in her dressing gown.
I frequently wear my dressing gown when working in the kitchen - particularly Sunday mornings. I have long since discovered that even with an apron, I can splash my Sunday best as I prepare lunch before dashing off to church. My dressing gown [ancient, £20 from Cotton Traders] is a much safer garment - and I can sling it in the washing machine whenever it gets dirty.
A thing I always do at Christmas with a round loaf is, hollow it out, put a cheese round in ( any kind that melts into gooiness ) top with some kind of chutney ( usually a red onion one ). Put the lid of the bread back on, wrap in tin foil, and bake for 30 mins on medium heat. You break of the sides of the bread to dip into the cheese. Yum!
ReplyDeleteI must say, the chowder bowl looked too thick and goo-ey for my tastes but I like that he's going off the beaten track to showcase some interesting places and recipes. He's one of my fav chefs (although it took me a while to forgive him for dumping his first wife, who was there from the beginning through thick and thin when he was just starting up, and running off with the Aussie younger and blonder producer when he was filming in Oz. I take it that she was also responsible for his acquisition of a new set of shiny and too white falsers!).I miss his little dog Chalky.
ReplyDeleteGlory. I'll not dull this shining place with a description of my dressing gown! There are two, summer and winter, both hand-me-downs! I only wanted to say that Catherine brought "Belfast baps" to Preparing for Advent one year when we finished with soups. Huge, wondrous things they were. Used just like this. I'd never seen them before, after a whole lifetime in this city, and I've never seen them since!
ReplyDeleteYour bread bowls look delicious and your soup sounds good, too. I'm off to look up your bread recipe.
ReplyDeleteI wish we hadn't lost the blades to our blender when we moved house last year- we have a Celeriac we want to make into soup!
ReplyDeleteHave you tried "e spares". I have had one or two replacement parts from them in the past. Very reliable company I think
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