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!!

Porridge

Today we awoke to the sort of morning when the mind turns to porridge - a gusting wind whirling out of the southwest, hurling massive raindrops at the windows. At least the snow was starting to melt. The cats took one look and went back to bed - tempting to do the same. And what better breakfast for such a morning than a bowl of hot porridge oats, sweetened in Pauline's case and salty for Tim, but in both cases made with unpasteurised milk (lait cru fermier) from GAEC Lait Grand Cru at La Borde, a farm enterprise in le Grand Pressigny. This milk is the real thing - it comes in plastic pouches (ideal for freezing) which sit in a little plastic jug for pouring, but the cream rises to the top, just as it used to when I was a kid. We separate it into "entier" for coffee - and porridge - and "demi" for tea, and woe betide anyone who doesn't shake before using.

My childhood memory of 'top of the milk' was that largely the cat got it. Our family didn't even have a cat. It was just a neighbour's cat, visiting, and knowing a soft touch when it found one. We now know that cow's milk is bad for cats (sorry guys) so all the more for us!

At La Borde they also prepare crème crue, a natural cream so thick it grabs hold of the spoon, which keeps for ages. And delicious live natural yoghurt. And butter, stamped with designs. And soft cheese with garlic and herbs. And don't get me on to the rice pudding! Oh all right then. This is 1 euro 30 a jar, but the jars are identical with those supplied by Lakeland at 1 euro 20 each, and are ideal for home-made preserves - fruit jellies, lemon curd etc. One jar makes a rich dessert for two people or one gannet. You can buy La Borde products from the farm, or from the stall at Le Grand Pressigny market every thursday. The Spar in GP sells an increasing volume of La Borde milk at 80 cents a litre, and you can also find it in local supermarkets. The only way we could drink milk with a smaller burden of food miles is to have our own cow!

These are some of the La Borde products in our fridge.
The jug was bought from Waitrose in Swaffham.

Easy microwave porridge for one
Weigh out 30g porridge oats in a polythene rice pudding pot. This is transparent, so you can mark the 30g level on the side, for next time. Put in a cereal bowl with 180ml milk. If you are Tim, add a pinch of salt. If you are a Scot, I apologise now. I set the microwave to medium (450 watts), cook the porridge for 2 minutes, stir it, then another 2 minutes at medium. Serve sprinkled with your sweetener of choice, or not as the case may be, and maybe a bit more milk if you like.