A Savoury Bread Pudding. Strata!

South veering southwest later 5 to 7, occasionally gale 8.

Moderate or rough, occasionally very rough.

Occasional rain or drizzle.

Good, occasionally poor.

Dont know about you, but I tend to “forget” food. If I encounter a new method or dish and like it, I tend to cook it for weeks on end and then it somehow slips my mind. I was once talking to my brother and mentioned my favourite vegetables. He then told me that his taste is somehow simpler and that he likes cauliflower. My jaw dropped, not because he has a simple taste (he hasn’t), but I have forgotten about cauliflower for years.

Same applies to Strata. I used to cook it a lot when I was much younger and I remember cooking it for my children when they were young. But somehow I forgot about it. Probably for 15 years or so. But yesterday it came back to me.

I looked in my fridge and gathered all loose ends of the last week. Since I am off work due to a nasty cold with fever and a horrible cough I did not want to go out- or if I did, not wanting to go shopping. And when I noticed the three slices of dried out sourdough bread, I remembered Strata.

It makes perfect sense since Strata has written Saturday all over it.

1. You can do it in advance on Friday night and have a hassle free Saturday brunch.

2. You do it on Friday night before you go out drinking and have the suspicion that Saturday means nurturing your hangover and even cheese on toast could provide a challenge.

3. You prepare it Saturday morning, take the dogs (or kids) for a long walk and come home and just need to bang something in the oven.

4. You can tie up all loose ends, from the sorry looking last slice of bacon to the dried out fennel in your vegetable box.

5. If you have neglected your kitchen and need to spend hours cleaning it, you don’t want to destroy your hard labour again by cooking a few hours later.

6. It is comfort food with a T and easy to eat for children without teeth, old people without teeth, after a dentist appointment or when you are too lazy to chew.

7. You can manage it if you have a cold and cough your little heart out. Poor me.

Strata is, I believe, NOT an Italian dish but has American roots and the name derives from the geological terms of layers. And this is what you do, you create layers. You can basically add what you want, but bread, eggs and cheese are a must.

In the past I used up chorizo and jalapeño peppers, spinach, leek and onion, barbequed leftover sausages, chicken leftovers with leek, smoked salmon, ham, just plenty of onions or made an English Fry-up in a casserole dish. No vegetables? Pear, some tarragon and blue cheese (trust me on this one, it is ace).

In short: Everything but the kitchen sink.

It is a good dish to use up the rest of your baguette, but be bold with the flavours. Anything smoked goes, strong cheeses or added ingredients like chillies. All filling ingredients need to be cooked in advance, unless they are already cooked, like ham or leftover chicken.

This recipe are today`s leftovers and it was bloody delicious.

Strata with mushrooms

3 slices of good quality white bread; slightly stale or dried out

5 brown mushrooms

3 stalks of spring onions

1 garlic clove

120gr grated smoked cheese (in this case around 2/3 of Applewood smoked cheddar and 1/3 Bavarian smoked cheese)

2 eggs

100ml milk

Dijon mustard

Butter

Salt and pepper

Slice the mushrooms and cut the garlic very fine. Heat a pan, add butter and the mushrooms and garlic. Fry for about 5 minutes until soft (it helps if you add a lid if the mushrooms are slightly dried out to begin with). Add the chopped spring onions and cook for a further 3 minutes, this time without lid, you don’t want liquid.

In the meantime spread the mustard thinly on the bread and let sit for a few minutes. Cut the bread into small cubes and use one third to cover the bottom of a small dish. Add half of the mushroom mixture, top with 1/3 of the grated cheese, add another layer of bread, add the next half of mushrooms and another third of cheese, top with the rest of the bread. Press it down.

Beat the eggs and the milk, add salt (not too much) and pepper (you can also add nutmeg or paprika) and pour over the bread mixture. Press it down again, everything should be submerged.

Let it rest for up to 8 hours or overnight (actually I once prepared it 24 hours in advance and it was as good as prepared a few hours earlier). By this time the bread will have soaked up the egg mixture.

When you are ready to cook, heat the oven to 180C, put the dish in and add the last third of the cheese on top.

Bake until brown and bubbly, about 30-40 minutes.

Serve with a green salad, a beer, or, as I did, with a rather spicy “Virgin Mary”

This recipe might be a bit too much for one person (the first picture represents about a third and I ate twice that amount) but it tastes nice cold too, so lunch for today was sorted.

In fact, after having it cooked now again for some time (I told you I get a bit obsessive with “new” cooking ideas), I believe it is better cold. Warm is comfort, cold an extremely quick high energy snack. And easy to use as an office lunch.