CROCK POT BREAD PUDDING WITH BOURBON SAUCE RECIPES

Steps:

• Wash the fennel bulb and cut the top off and discard. Cut several thin sliced off of the bottom of the bulb, enough for supporting the salmon filets while steaming.
• Remove the thick outer layer of the fennel and cut the rest into a half-inch dice.
• In 3-quart saucepan, combine the diced fennel, fennel seeds, shallots, minced garlic, and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes.
• Strain the broth into a bowl and set the vegetables aside. Pour the broth back into the pan and reduce to 1/2 cup over high heat.
• Line your steamer basket(s) with the fennel slices and place the salmon filets on top. Salt and pepper the filets.
• Bring about 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a steamer pan. Add the steamer basket with the salmon, cover, and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until done.
• While the salmon steams, make the sauce. In a blender, add half of the cooked fennel mixture and the reduced sauce and blend. Add the butter, a few pieces at a time, and blend. Finish by adding the lemon juice and salt if needed.
• Serve the salmon on a bed of the vegetables topped with the sauce and chopped flat-leaf parsley. Give the sauce an extra whirl in the blender right before topping the fish.

Steps:

• The night before baking the bread, mix the levains, separately, in bowls. Cover and let rise for 12 to 16 hours.
• In a large bowl, add the water and the levains, and mix until the levains have broken up.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix by hand, a dough whisk, or a wooden spoon until you have a rough, shaggy dough.
• Cover the dough and let rise for about 3 hours, doing stretches and folds at 20 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, and 120 minutes, covering between each stretch and fold session. The dough should become more smooth each time.
• Let the dough rise untouched for the final hour.
• Divide the dough in half and preshape each half into a round. Cover with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Line two bannetons or 9 inch bowls with tea towels and sprinkle fairly generously with wheat or rye flour or a 50/50 mixture.
• Shape the boules and place them, seam side up, in the baskets/bowls and cover. Let rise for an hour.
• In the meantime, heat the oven to 450 degrees F with two Dutch ovens if using them, or with a pizza stone on the middle rack and a steam pan on the bottom rack if you are not using Dutch ovens.
• When the loaves have risen, turn each out of its basket onto a piece of parchment paper each. Score the loaves in whatever pattern you prefer.
• If you are using Dutch ovens, remove them from the oven, remove the lids, and lift the dough and parchment into the pan using the parchment to lift the dough and leaving it on the bottom. Replace the lids and place the Dutch ovens in the oven.
• If you are baking on a stone, slide the loaves, parchment and all, onto the preheated stone. Add a cup of ice cubes to the steam pan. Shut the oven door.
• Bake the loaves for 25 minutes and then remove the Dutch oven pan lids and bake for an additional 20 minutes either still in the pots or move the loaves to a baking sheet to finish baking, until the loaves have an internal temperature of 200 to 205 degrees F. Cool completely on a wire rack.