This is converted from the recipe “London pea-souper” from The Fabulous Baker Brothers book “Glorious British Grub” which is the book from series 2 of their tv show.
In the book they serve it garnished with smoked eel (yuk!), I garnished the soup with bacon instead.
Makes 6
For the bread bowls
560g strong white bread flour
20g olive oil
2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon salt
300mls warm water
Place all ingredients in the TMX bowl, knead for 5 minutes.
Leave in the bowl and place in a warm spot until doubled in size.
Divide the dough into 6 equal size portions and then roll each using the palm of your hands to make them each into a nice round ball shape. Tip a little olive oil onto your hands and rub the oil into each ball of dough, ensuring all the dough is covered in oil. Place them on a baking tray, cover and leave in a warm spot until they double in size.
Heat the oven to 220°C. Put a dish of water in the bottom of the oven to help form the crust. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on the outside and the bread is cooked.
Let cool.
Slice the top off the rolls and using your hands, remove the inside of the roll to make a bowl (set aside the removed bread as it goes in the soup). Brush a little oil inside the bowls and place them in a pre-heated oven at 220°C for 5 minutes.
(If not making the soup, you could use the reserved bread to make breadcrumbs or croutons.)
For the pea soup
1 onion, quartered
1 glove garlic
1 small red chilli, or to taste
20mls olive oil
Small knob of butter
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of sea salt
500g frozen peas
400mls hot chicken stock
4 tablespoons crème fraiche
Small bunch of mint (set aside a few leaves to use as a garnish)
Zest of half a lemon
Juice of a lemon
Crispy bacon pieces to garnish
Chop onion, garlic and chilli for 3 sec/speed 5, scrape down sides of bowl.
Add oil and butter and sauté 5 minutes/varoma temp/speed 2.
Add paprika, cayenne pepper, salt, frozen peas and hot chicken stock, cook 10 minutes/100°/reverse/speed 2.
Add the bread you set aside when making the bread bowls, crème fraiche, mint, lemon zest and juice.
Blitz carefully for 1 minute starting at speed 1 working up to speed 8.
Taste and season if needed.
Serve the soup in the bread bowls, garnished with bacon and mint leaves.
Enjoy!
Notes:
I substituted 200g of stone-ground wheat flour for some of the white flour and added a little bit more water as required.
As I didn’t want to use 6 bread bowls, I only added the insides of 4 of the rolls to the soup and it was plenty to thicken the soup. The other 2 rolls I placed in the freezer to use later.
