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Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding




Source of Recipe


Labelcuisine


Recipe Introduction


"In New Orleans, we know bread pudding as a dessert. This is a bread pudding made with all the traditional ingredients except the sweet ones: sugar, vanilla, raisins, and cinnamon. In their place are mushrooms and cheese. As peculiar an idea as this may sound, a number of local chefs have been creating something like this as a side dish. At our house, my wife created a savory bread pudding to replace either a starch or a stuffing, and we've had it at Thanksgivings ever since.
This is at its best with meaty, wild-tasting mushrooms: portobellos, criminis, shiitakes, chanterelles, porcinis, etc. The best cheeses are the ones that melt well and have an interesting tang: Gruyere, Fontina, Swiss, Provolone,
mozzarella. (If you use the latter two, use a little Parmesan, too.)"



List of Ingredients




Serves eight

3 cups half-and-half
4 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
18 inches of a loaf of stale poor boy bread [or other French or Italian Bread]
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 1/2 cup shredded Gruyere, Fontina, or other easy-melting white cheese

Recipe



1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees [F].

2. Combine the half-and-half, eggs, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and salt in a bowl and blend well.

3. Slice the bread into thin (about 1/4 inch) slices. Butter the inside of a 9 x 5 x 4 baking dish or casserole. Place a layer of bread along the bottom. Sprinkle one-third each of the cheese, mushrooms, and green onions over the bread. Pour one-fourth of the milk-egg mixture over this, enough to soak it well. Push down gently until the bread is soaked.

4. Repeat the layers in the same order as above, following with a dousing of liquid. Finish with a layer of bread and the last of the liquid.

5. Place the baking dish in a pan of warm water and put the entire assembly into the preheated oven. Bake for an hour and 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Let it cool for at least a half-hour before serving. It can be sliced, but it's perfectly fine to spoon it right out of the dish at the table.


My Notes: I made this for Thanksgiving 2002 - this makes a alot, especially if you have all the other goodies (as I did!). This dish was fantastic - can almost make a whole meal out of it alone. Next time, I will cut this recipe in half.