justpigs

More than justpigs, really.

My ambition as it pertains to cooking is simply to make great food and share it with my family and friends. This blog is just another way to do that. Welcome to my table!

"You have to love either what you are going to eat, or the person you are cooking for. Then you have to give yourself up to cooking. Cuisine is an act of love."--Alain Chapel

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savory bread pudding

May 20, 2010

Leek Bread Pudding

I'm feeling a little like Popeye lately. We're enjoying loads of green veggies from our Two Small Farms csa. All those veggies do make one feel quite healthy and somewhat invincible. We've added favas to one of our favorite leftovers--lamb hash--and had sauteed greens for lunch, we've had soups with kale and, of course, salad, salad, salad. All of it has been terrific.

With new veggies (and lots of them) one has a good excuse to search the internet and cookbooks for new recipes. I'm *lucky* to have a backlog of recipes I want to try and was excited to use one of them last night.

A week or so ago the cook-tastic Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for Leek Bread Pudding. Most of you know about my love of bread-y things, so you know I had to try it. Of course, we had some glorious thin fresh leeks in a recent veggie box.

The recipe is perfect as it is so I will just direct you Smitten Kitchen. I did make a couple of small changes in my version. I used challah (no brioche at the store that day). I used green shallots from my veggie box instead of chives, as my chives aren't quite ready yet. I cooked the shallots with the leeks. They need a little heat to mellow their flavor. I also used Australian white cheddar instead of gruyere or emmanthal, simply because I forgot to buy the right cheese when I was at the market and I always have the cheddar on hand. It was delightful. Finally, I used a little bit more bread and leek (but not more egg or milk) in order to cook it in an 8"x8" baking dish.

We loved that this bread pudding is not heavy--like the panades we often make in the winter--but still filling. I served it with a chopped salad of romaine, tomato, golden carrots, scallions, and an anchovy vinaigrette.

Filed under // savory bread pudding vegetarian

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January 12, 2010

MAKE IT! Results: Soupe à l'Oignon Grantinée

After two years of thinking about making Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée, I was not disappointed when I finally did make it. The technique was very easy, though somewhat more time consuming than I had imagined. I did end up caramelizing the onions which adds some additional prep time. I wonder if toasting the bread is entirely necessary. Next time, I think I will just use day- (or two) old bread.

Both Wendy and I used the Emmental cheese which makes a nice, crisp top crust. Wendy felt the "crusty cheese top was divine and totally made up for any mush." Jamie substituted Gruyere because Emmental was not available. The Gruyere did not seem to crisp up as well and Jamie finally ended up putting his soupe under the broiler.

As I mentioned, I caramelized the onions which took a little added time. It was worth it, in my opinion. I debated adding stock instead of salt water, as Jamie did, but settled on deglazing the onion pan with a little white wine and adding the salt water to the scrapings to make an onion-y broth. I think I would advise against using a meat broth, in the end. As Jamie said, "toasted bread, carmelized onions, yummy cheese, butter, and tomato puree turned out to provide plenty of richness."

The best part of making this dish was the construction. First, the toasted, buttered bread topped with cheese.

Then, a layer of onions with tomato puree drizzled over them.

Finally, a layer of cheese. Then repeat to fill the kettle.

Add the salty water and cook for 90 minutes, uncovered. The final picture is Wendy's. Yum!

The dish was thick, rich and delicious. My kids were a little reluctant to eat it, but liked it once they did. We only ate half of it on the day we made it. I reheated the leftovers the next night to use as a side dish and it was fabulous.

I love Wendy's family's reaction: "My husband and six-year-old LOVED it! I was surprised when my 6-year-old asked for seconds. The 4-year-old? Well, he doused his in ketchup and ate maybe two bites. I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion."

Thanks to those who participated in MAKE IT! If you didn't get around to it this time, I hope you'll try it next time.

Filed under // make it! results savory bread pudding soup

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December 14, 2009

MAKE IT! Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée

I would like to introduce what I hope will be a regular feature of this blog, called MAKE IT! I will give you a week (or so) to make a recipe I present here. After you've made it, send me your pictures and a couple sentences about your experience with the dish: did you like it? what would you do differently in future? and so forth. I will then post your feedback along with my own.

In the spirit of my previous post on Bready Things, I thought I would introduce a bready recipe I have wanted to make. For over two years I have intended to make Henri Babinski's 1907 recipe for Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée as described in Amanda Hesser's 2007 article in The New York Times.

This is the perfect recipe for this time of year. The ingredients are very basic, the method is fairly straight forward. I adore well-made french onion soup, it is perhaps one of the ultimate comfort foods. But this, but this! Layers of onions, buttered bread and pureed tomato cooked in savory liquid and topped with cheese. It has to be divine! Doesn't it?! MAKE IT! and let me know.

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/magazine/11food.t.html

Filed under // make it! savory bread pudding soup vegetarian

Comments [6]

December 14, 2009

Bready Things

Mmmm. Bready Things. Panades and bread puddings, especially savory bread puddings, are some of my favorite things to make and eat. The first recipe I cooked out of The Zuni Cookbook by Judy Rodgers was the Chard & Onion Panade with Fontina (pictured in the souffle dish in photo #1). It has since become a family favorite (although, we like it with gruyere).

For Thanksgiving this year I tried out Mark Bittman's directions for savory mushroom bread pudding (photo #2), which appeared in The New York Times as follows:

"Mushroom Bread Pudding: Put 6 cups of good bread (day-old is best) cut into 1-inch chunks into a buttered baking dish. Beat 4 eggs with 2 cups of milk and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan and pour over the bread. Sauté 4 cups of sliced mushrooms until tender with a teaspoon or two fresh thyme leaves and mix into the bread. Bake until just set, about 40 minutes."

I used a bit more egg, milk, and parmesan than this calls for because the bread still felt a bit dry to me after adding the initial amount. I sauteed my chanterelles and black trumpet mushrooms in butter with diced shallot and several thyme sprigs until all of the water from the mushrooms had been released and then evaporated. I sprinkled the cooked mushrooms liberally with salt and pepper before mixing them in with the bread soaked in the egg, milk, and parmesan mixture. I finally grated a generous layer of parmesan on the top of the whole thing before baking.