Tuesday 14 May 2013

Savoury bread & butter pudding

In the Summer 2013 issue of Beer...
the quarterly magazine of CAMRA...
there was a recipe for a Mediterranean bread and butter pudding...
and it sounded very tasty.
Yesterday we needed a hot meal...

As it left the oven...
But, as usual, we didn't have all the ingredients...
the full recipe as published is at the bottom...
but this is the recipe as I made it...

1 sliced loaf of brioche... this was bought for the recipe... and it was sandwich loaf shaped
98g butter, softened... it was all I had...
200g rather overhard Chévre cheese, "shaved" carefully with a Chinese chopper... the Micro-planes wouldn't touch it!!
15 slices [one packet] of Smoked Austrian ham... from LIDL

and for the custard...
3 whole eggs and 3 yolks.... my recipe for meringue calls for 3 egg whites
1tsp un-smoked paprika... but home grown and ground
1tbs brandy
200ml La Borde "double" cream... so thick it needed extra thinning
250ml milk
I cut back a bit on the liquid to allow for the extra egg white

The method was much as below, but I decided to blend the butter and cheese together with a spoon to make spreading easier... that worked well!
The LIDL ham doesn't have separators which always makes it a bit tricky to get them apart...
and I didn't cut the slices in half... and I had three extra of course!!
When packing them in, I did cut the end crusts in half across, not down...
that allowed me to use the two tops in the centre...
The addition of the liquid for the custard took almost the 45 minutes that you are meant to let it stand... huh?
So I then let it stand another 45 minutes to soak properly... towards the end of this time I pre-heated the oven.
After the 50 mins there was still runny custard in the middle...
so it was back in for another 30 mins...
and, because I like crusty bread & butter pudding...
I didn't do the covering bit...
until the last 30 mins as the crusty outside was how I like to see it after the first 50 mins.


One portion on the plate and you can see the yummy moistness in cross section
We ate half of it hot, with a plain green salad, roast tomato & cumin chutney and sweet pickled ripe Oxheart tomato...
it was exceptionally yummyumm!...

Plated up... the ripe tomato pickle is top left [just below the salad]  with the roast tomato & cumin chutney below it.

Tonight we ate some of it cold...
again with a plain green salad and tomato & cumin chutney...
with the addition of a potato and hard-boiled egg mayonnaise, some radish and half a fresh tomato... again it worked well and would probably be a good picnic main course...
Not often I use a magazine recipe...
but this one really caught my eye.

The actual recipe in the magazine was:
1 loaf of brioche
100g butter, softened
200g Manchego cheese, shaved
12 slices of Serrano ham

and for the custard...
2 whole eggs and 4 yolks
1tsp smoked paprika
1tbs brandy
400ml double cream
150ml milk

Slice brioche into 12 slices,
butter one side of each and top with cheese and a slice of ham.
Cut each slice in half to give 24, then arrange them crust-up in a buttered casserole dish; don't pack too tightly.

Whisk together custard ingredients, pour over the pudding and leave for 45mins.
Pre-heat the oven to 150°C / 300°F / gas mark 2.
Season pudding liberally with freshly ground black pepper.
Cover pudding with greaseproof paper, then aluminium foil; bake for 45-50 minutes, until firm.
Serve with tomato chutney.
Serves four!
No... it would easily serve six to eight!!

The recipe is served as a starter at the Anderson in Fortrose... this hotel/pub, reportedly with a magnificent selection of Belgian bottled ales and UK beers on draught, has been run for the last ten years by one Jim Anderson [formerly a US beer writer] and his wife Anne [a cutting edge chef]... they fled Philadelphia for a Victorian hotel in Scotland... with some success it appears!!