Savory bread pudding with wild mushrooms & bacon.

You’ll need:
Unsalted butter, for the baking dish
8 oz/225g country-style bread, preferably day-old
8 oz/225g thick cut bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 small or 1 large/110g leek, white and light green parts sliced 1.2 inch/12mm thick and rinsed (I used green onions)
2 Tbsp olive oil, as needed
1 lb/455g mixed wild mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick (I used a mix of shiitake and cremini)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp sea salt
6 large eggs
2 cups/480 ml whole milk
1 cup/240 ml heavy cream
1/4 cup/25 g grated Gruyere, Comte, or other firm cheese
Ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.
Butter inside surfaces of a 9-inch/23 cm square baking dish with at least 2-inch/5cm sides.
Cut the bread into 1-inch/2.5 cm cubes.
Spread them out on a baking sheet and place in the oven to toast for a few minutes, until lightly toasted.
Set aside.
In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until slightly crisped but not yet bully browned.
Transfer to a large bowl and pour off all but 2 Tbsp of fat from the skillet.
Add the leeks to the skillet and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer to the bowl with the bacon.
If the pan looks dry, swirl in 1 Tbsp of the olive oil.
Add about half of the mushrooms and saute, stirring occasionally, until crisp and lightly browned in a few places, 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl and cook the remaining mushrooms, adding as much of the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil to the skillet as needed.
Transfer to the bowl and let cool.
Add the cheese, parsley, thyme, and salt to the cooked mushroom mixture and mix well.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and cream until well blended.
Pour over the mushroom mixture and stir to combine.
Gently mix in the toasted bread cubes.
Carefully pour the bread mixture into the prepared baking dish.
The custard should come right up to the top but not cover the highest cubes of bread.
(If you have extra, fill a buttered ramekin and make an additional, smaller bread pudding (note from Sarah: I had extra)).
Scatter the additional cheese evenly over the pudding and grind a light dusting of pepper on top.
Bake until the custard is no longer runny but still a bit wobbly in the center, 40 minutes to 1 hour (and about 25 minutes for a smaller ramekin).
It will continue to cook as it sits before serving.
Serve the bread pudding hot or at room temperature.
Any leftovers can be stored, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and reheated, covered with aluminum foil, in a 350 degree F/180 degree C oven.

- http://casayellow.com/2017/04/19/savory-bread-pudding-with-mushrooms-bacon/
OR:
- Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding From 'The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook' | Serious Eats:

Marmalade panettone pudding.

Recipe by Nigel Slater published in the Guardian.
Panettone makes a fine bread and butter pudding.
Adding dollops of home made marmalade to this comforting pudding has made it even more interesting and satisfying to eat.
You could use half cream and half milk here, but the panettone adds a richness that I would argue makes such an addition unnecessary.
And a drizzle of cold double cream as you eat is excellent.
Serves 6.

Ingredients
325g panettone
5 heaped tbsp marmalade
4 large eggs
500ml creamy milk

Method
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 5.
You will also need a deep ovenproof dish measuring roughly 30x26cm, very lightly buttered.
Slice the panettone thinly, it really doesn’t matter if it crumbles.
If it is a good panettone then I think it should anyway.
Melt the marmalade in a small saucepan.
Put half of the panettone slices in a dish.
Spoon over half of the marmalade.
Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them lightly, then beat in the milk.
Pour half of the egg custard mixture over the panettone.
Add the remaining slices, the rest of the marmalade and then the custard.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes until it is puffed and golden.
Shake it gently.
It should wobble, but show no sign of uncooked custard.
Serve warm, and if you wish, with a drizzle of cream.

Monty Don in his kitchen.

Turning the tables: Monty Don in his kitchen | Life and style | The Guardian:
I have not tasted yet!
"Chilled cucumber soup
This recipe was modified as a result of lunch with Nigel.
1 1/2 cucumbers
1 pint lowfat yogurt
1/2 pint light chicken stock
juice from 1/2 a lemon
good handful of chopped spearmint
salt and freshly ground pepper
ice cubes

Roughly chop the cucumbers, leaving the skin on, and liquidise in a blender.
Add the yogurt, chicken stock and lemon juice and whizz together.
Put into a big bowl, stir in the chopped mint and season.
Refrigerate for an hour before serving with an ice cube in each bowl.

Pear custard pudding. By Gloria Nicol.

Serves 6

4 large eggs
120g / 4 oz caster sugar
25g / 1 oz plain flour
small pinch of salt
250 ml / 8 1/2 fl oz whole milk and cream (mixed however you fancy)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 pears, peeled cored and quartered
butter for the dish
icing sugar for dusting

Butter a baking dish, approximately 22 by 30 cm.
Preheat the oven to 200C / Gas Mark 6.
Place the pears in the bottom of the dish, side by side.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together till light and frothy, then continuing to whisk add the flour and salt till the mixture is like thin batter.
Add the milk/cream combo and vanilla and whisk some more.
Pour the batter over the pears and bake it for 40-50 minutes till golden on top and almost set in the middle.
Leave to cool and dust with icing sugar when still warm or serve cold.
If there is any left for breakfast, then tuck in.

Gloria Nicol grows many of the ingredients for her preserves on an allotment close to her home in the Forest of Dean. She writes the blog www.laundryetc.co.uk, where you can read more about her preserving.

Saucy Sticky Date Pudding.

Saucy, gooey stickydate puddings, dressed with a caramel butterscotch sauce and finished with a rich vanilla bean ice-cream.
Ingredients

For the puddings
250g (1 1/2 cups) deseeded dried dates, roughly chopped into small pieces
312ml (1 1/4 cups) water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
60g (1/4 cup) salted butter, chopped roughly
2 large eggs (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
188g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
150g (2/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
Peacans for decorating
For the butterscotch sauce
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter
300ml pure cream
For the ice-cream
2 cups full fat milk
2 cups thickened ( or heavy) cream
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 whole vanilla bean, halved and seeds scraped
5 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
for the puddings
Place the dates and the water in a medium sauce pan over a high heat.
When the date mixture starts to boil, add the bicarb soda and the butter and remove from the heat.
Set saucepan aside and allow mixture to cool for 25 mins. During this time the butter will melt.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (356 Fahrenheit) If you have a fan forced oven preheat it to 160 degrees celsius (320 Fahrenheit).
Grease 6 2/3 cup capacity muffin pans or ramekins.
Transfer the date mixture to a medium mixing bowl.
Using a hand-held beater or whisk, add the eggs and vanilla to date mixture until combined ( this should take less than 30 seconds).
Mix the flour and brown sugar together, breaking up any lumps of sugar.
Add the flour/sugar mixture to the date mixture and fold through until combined.
Spoon mixture into prepared pans.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool in pans for 5 mins and then turn upside down on a plate.
Smother with butterscotch sauce and serve with ice cream and crushed or crumbled pecans ontop.
For the butterscotch sauce (makes 2 cups)
Place sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan over medium heat.
Cook, stirring, without boiling, for 4 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil.
Once at the boil, reduce heat to low.
Simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened.
For the ice cream
In a medium saucepan, over a medium heat, whisk together the milk, cream, half the sugar and vanilla bean ( including the pod).
Bring the milk mixture just to the boil.
while the milk mixture is heating ( ie before it is just at the boil), combine the yolks and the remaining sugar in a mixing bowl and using a hand-held beater on slow speed or a whisk, beat until thick and pale.
Once the milk mixture has come to a slight boil, whisk about 1/3 of the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture.
Whisk another 1/3 of the hot milk mixture to the yolk mixture.
Return the yolk mixture to the remaining 1/3 of milk mixture in the saucepan.
Using a wooden spoon, stir the mixture constantly over low heat until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
This mixture must not boil or the yolks will over cook – the process should only take a few minutes.
Pour the mixture through a sieve or mesh strainer and discard the vanilla pod.
Bring this mixture to room temperature.
Once cooled, cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or overnight.
Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker according to manufactures instructions.

Notes
Before being smothered with the butterscotch sauce, the puddings resemble a light but moist date cake. The more sauce the puddings absorb, the sticker they will become.
The amount of individual puddings the recipe produces will depend on the size of your pudding or muffin moulds. Whatever the size of your moulds, only add enough mixture so that they are 2/3rds full. This will allow room for the puddings to rise.
This recipe can also be used to make one large pudding by placing the mixture in a 20cm diameter pan.
To achieve a more toffee flavour for the sauce, add 25g of golden syrup.

It's a Date...with Saucy Sticky Date Pudding | Art of Baking: "It’s a Date…with Saucy Sticky Date Pudding"

'via Blog this'