Greetings! This is not related to this blog post, but I just wanted to let you know that I deleted my personal Facebook account. Can’t really get into the many reasons why I did this, only that I felt a huge weight has been lifted once I hit the delete button. It was time. Unfortunately, that meant the deletion of the Dave Bakes Facebook page, too. Because there wasn’t a way to save it unless I named an administrator other than myself. Oh well. I still have my IG, but for some reason, possibly because Facebook owns Instagram, the widget for it doesn’t work here. I haven’t learned yet how to reinstall it without the Facebook account. If you want to follow me on Instagram, it’s @davegonzalezbakes

We are well into the autumn season and so Seattle finally looks like, well, Seattle, with nothing but gray skies and rain! In other words, soup weather! And I’ve been wanting to make bread bowls for soup for the longest time, but the weather wasn’t quite cold or wet enough for me. Until now.

This recipe was based on a couple of YouTube videos I saw online in the last few weeks. One was for a recipe called Nigella Lawson’s Asian-Spiced Kedgeree on her channel. The other video was Baguette Bowl with Potato Soup Recipe, by a Korean channel, 매일맛나 delicious day. I simply doubled the recipe because I wanted 6 bowls.

I also made a chowder with lobster mushrooms, because I wanted to see how well lobster mushrooms can substitute for clams in a vegetarian version of clam chowder, but it turns out, it doesn’t. But it still makes a great tasting mushroom soup, I thought. I mainly wanted to use up the lobster mushrooms I had stored in our pantry. I’m really happy with how this salmon soup turned out, but of course, feel free to use any kind of stew or soup with these bread bowls.

curried salmon chowder in bread bowls

ingredients

2 salmon fillets with skin, 6 ounces each
salt
2 and 1/2 cups water
1 lime
olive oil
4 Tablespoons butter, divided use
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 and 1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 and 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 large russet potato, diced
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice
1-2 (14 fl.oz. each) cans coconut milk or coconut cream

salt/pepper, to adjust
lime juice
cilantro leaves, fresh, chopped
fish sauce, optional

method

First poach the salmon. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. In an 8 x 8 square brownie pan, add two 6 ounce salmon fillets and season with salt, then add the zest of one lime on top of them. Add the water and cover the top tightly with foil. Place in the oven until cooked, about 15-25 minutes, depending on thickness. Remove from oven and set aside. Do not drain poaching liquid. It will be used for part of the soup.

In a large pot, add 2 Tablespoons of the 4 Tablespoons of butter and also a Tablespoon of olive oil and turn on heat to medium high heat. Add the chopped onions and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes, stirring to keep garlic from getting burned.

Add the turmeric, coriander, cumin, and red pepper flakes, and continue to saute for a minute, stirring.

Add the diced potato and continue to heat, stirring often, until potatoes are just slightly softer, but still hard, about 3 minutes.

Add the rice and continue to stir often, to get the rice coated with the spices, stirring often, for about 1 minute.

Pour the poaching liquid from the poached salmon and once it starts to boil, turn heat down to slightly below medium and cover the pot with a lid. Let cook with lid on for about 15 minutes.

While rice is cooking, add the remaining 2 Tablespoons of butter into a small saucepan and let melt on medium heat. Add the flour and stir with a whisk to moisten and cook the flour as it bubbles, continuing to stir for about 30 seconds.

Pour half of a 14 fl. ounce can of coconut milk in a steady stream over the flour, continuing to stir with a whisk to break up any lumps of flour. Let continue to bubble and simmer while continuing to stir, about a minute.

After the rice has been cooking for 15 minutes, lift the lid and pour the butter/flour/coconut milk mixture into the rice mixture. Add the remaining can of coconut milk and stir occasionally while heating up until mixture starts to simmer. You can decide at this point to either add another can of coconut milk if you prefer a thinner soup or to keep this as a thick stew. Alternatively, you can also use an equal amount of fish or chicken stock or water to thin it out, if desired.

Garnish with some chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice and about a little shake of fish sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve in bread bowls, if desired.

bread bowls for soup

ingredients

4 and 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 and 3/4 cups lukewarm water
5 and 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
2 Tablespoons salt

method

In a bowl add the water and stir in the yeast and sugar and leave undisturbed for 10 minutes until bubbly and frothy. Discard and restart with new yeast and water if not bubbly.

Add the bread flour into a bowl and add the salt and stir with a whisk to disperse the salt.

When yeast has bloomed, add the yeast water incrementally while mixing or stirring the flour with a spoon or using your hands to get the ingredients moistened. Scrape the sides and bottom while also adding the yeast water in dry areas while mixing until a dough starts to form.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes either by hand or use a stand mixer with the dough attachment until the dough is smooth and elastic. Form dough into a ball.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning it once to coat the entire dough ball with oil, then cover the bowl and let dough sit undisturbed for an hour or 90 minutes, or until dough has doubled in size.

When doubled in size, punch dough ball down and divide into 6 small equal dough balls, and form each into a tight ball by first flattening it out on a work surface so that it’s like a pancake, then folding the edges into the center, then turning them over and using your hand to cup the ball of dough and in a circular motion on the work surface tuck the dough into a tight ball.

Place each dough ball on a parchment lined baking sheet with adequate space between them so that they do not touch. Let rest until it rises a little, about 20 minutes.

After the dough balls have risen somewhat, flatten each one out on a work surface again and reform into tight balls and transfer back to the parchment lined baking sheet and cover and let rise again, this time for a little longer, about 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Add a small pan to the bottom rack in the oven for the ice water. Get a glass of about a cup of water with a couple of ice cubes. Set aside.

When dough balls are ready to be baked, cut an “X” with a blade or a small sharp knife. Mist the surface with water, or you can also brush the tops with milk.

Open the oven and quickly pour the water with the ice into the small pan at the bottom rack, place the baking sheet with the dough balls to the center rack and close the door. Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes, then decrease the temperature to about 390 degrees F., and bake for about 10-15 minutes or more or until browned on top and internal temperature is about 190 degrees F.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Avoid drafts or colder temperatures at first as that may cause the surface of each roll to wrinkle. Use a serrated knife to cut the tops off and hollow out the dough balls to use as bread bowls. Serve the tops with whatever soup or stew you place into the bowls. If they sit too long after being baked and get to room temperature, heat them up in a 225 degrees F. oven for about 15 minutes