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!!

Brioche Osborne

No not a way of cooking the Chancellor, or the budget for that matter, but a variation on Osborne Pudding. [Itself a type of Bread and Butter pudding]
The Good Housekeeping recipe uses brown or wholemeal bread.
But for this version I used a commercial sliced Brioche and NO butter.... except the 9% that was in the loaf... and also no sugar.

Ingredients are as follows:
The better part of a packet of sliced Brioche [all I had left were the crusts and four slices... but it is all down to the size of the dish you filling with the bread.]
A jar of marmalade [to use for spreading on the slices.]
Two eggs and 500ml of full milk [this is 'comfort' food!]
Some Vanilla extract - to taste [NB: not essence]

Method:
Spread one side of each slice with some marmalade [to taste] and arrange it in the dish.
You are trying to get a good amount of the top crust of the loaf in the air when it is cooking.
Once the dish is full [you may have to use some half slices towards the middle... tuck them in so that the middle slices are forced apart, or lifted up.]
Then, using a large bowl, whisk the eggs well and then whisk in the vanilla and milk... try and get a lot of air into the mix and then pour it over the marmaladed brioche in the dish... and leave it to stand. It needs at leaste 10mins to allow the custard to soak into the bread.
Then pre-heat oven to 180C [350F/Gas Mark 4] and once it is up to temperature put the pudding in for 45 minutes [or 40 if the oven is on fan assist.]
Meanwhile make some Bird's Custard!!
When the top is nice and dark and the pudding is well risen remove from the oven and serve up quickly with some custard [or cream or creme fraiche!]

Enjoy....!

Variation: Use Apricot Jam and some chopped moist-dried apricots [the ones that are sold to snack on!] soaked in Apricot brandy [or just use brandy if you don't have the liqueur].