Passport & Plate - San Fran Bunny
USA | Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Oil:
1 tablespoon clarified butter
Vegetables:
250g dry red lentils
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
1 red jalapeno
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoon grated ginger root
250g can tomatoes
Spices:
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Stock:
3 Cups chicken or vegetable stock
175g can coconut cream
Toppings:
½ Cup roasted cashews
250g Plain yogurt for serving
Sprinkling of Coriander (Fresh or freeze dried)
Edible bowl:
1 San Francisco Sour dough Loaf
(or any roundish crusty loaf, I used a rye Sourdough loaf but traditional SA bunny is in a half loaf of sandwich bread)
How to prepare this recipe
Soup Recipe
1) Chop: Onion, carrot, chilli, garlic
2) Grate: Ginger
3) Heat Pot on high (Big one, this is where all the soup is being made)
4) Melt Clarified Butter
5) Throw in onions, cook until translucent
6) Throw in garlic, carrot, jalapeno, ginger. Cook through these flavors but don't let them burn.
7) Throw in spices (Keep stirring around, letting everything mix together, make sure the flavors are released!)
8) Throw in Tomato can (stir together)
9) Boil Kettle enough for 3 cups of stock (Mix your stock cube with the water once boiled and throw into pot)
10) Rinse off your lentils then put them in the pot
11) Cook together for a while, turn heat to medium for about 10-15 minutes until lentils are cooked.
12) Take off heat. I have a soup stick blender which is awesome and doesn't splash so be careful, I blend everything in the pot at this stage, and once at your desired consistency of soup put back on the stove top on low.
13) Add coconut cream and stir in.
Bread:
1) You can either use store bought or make your own, their are a lot of recipes online but all Sourdough breads need a starter which you can usually ask your local baker for or make your own. I like to use a metal pot for the bread in the oven as it gives an awesome crusty texture and is the perfect roundness for this bread.
2) To save time I bought a Rye Sourdough Loaf from my local bakery.
3) Preheat your oven (this is a good time to roast those cashews)
4) Bake bread until crispy (about 15 min/ don't burn!)
5) Cut hole in bread with bread knife be careful not to pierce through loaf as this is your bowl!!!
6) Cut to bottom (Crispy bottom of bread helps) and make a circle in bread.
7) Put your hand in and scoop out bread circle (best if you keep it whole)
Soup+Bread
1) Scoop your soup into the hole of the bread.
2) Top soup with Yogurt, sprinkles of coriander and some roasted cashews.
3) Serve. The soup in the bread, with the scooped out bread alongside it.
4) Use scooped out bread to dip into soup then eat bowl!
5) Enjoy!
The story behind this recipe
Sour dough Salvation
We had just been to see Alcatraz, and to be honest, it was pretty damn boring. Not once did I see Nicholas Cage and anyway those prisoners seemed to be living it up over there. Well, compared to the prisons we have in SA. But I did feel their pain, being trapped on a rock, with only dry terrible generic pretzel dust to chew upon, the city of San Francisco so close but so far. The hustle and bustle of the city with its Single Origin coffee, mish mash of food influences, trams, winding streets and the delicious and iconic San Francisco Sour Dough.
So once we got off that silly rock, we went hunting for some bread. The pier was a tourist hotspot: lots of overpriced and under flavored things wafted our way as we walked to Boudin Bakery. A mainstay of the bread scene that's been around since 1849.
San Francisco sourdough French Bread came about when wild yeasts in the San Fran air, gave a strong unique flavor to the traditional recipe. When you make Sourdough, you have a starter dough, using a little each time you make bread. If you keep your starter going you can make crispy, crusty, soft edible things of beauty.
When we walked in, all our senses were hit, a bustling bakery, a museum and a shop.
Hot damn we made a good choice! Those San Franciscans have a version of what we call a Bunny Chow in South Africa, that came from the Indian migrant workers who worked on the sugar cane fields in Durban. They would carry their curries in hollowed out loaves of bread to work and in so doing created a signature South African dish. It contains no bunny, originating from the word Banya, Hindi for merchant.
This dish was a similar concept. Cut out a huge well from the center of the bread, fill with deliciousness (ie. soup) use cut out bit to dip into the soup then eat the crusty sweet soup covered bowl. Genius.
So as an ode to both, I made a traditional Indian Soup in a San Fran Sourdough Bowl. AKA the Sourdough Bunny? San Fran Bunny? Sour Chow? Delicious.
