April 11, 2007: Leftover Makeover - Savoury bread pudding

So, I made myself two little loaves of bread and you can only stuff yourself with so much during that first day of freshness. What to do with the rest - French toast? Bread and butter pudding? Thing is, this bread's got chilli and cumin going on! Lucky for me, Heidi from 101 Cookbooks recently demonstrated that bread pudding goes down just as sweetly when it's made in savoury form. I used her recipe for the key ingredients and proportions and got my own slightly different combination of flavours going - button mushrooms, shallots, flat-leaf parsley and parmesan. Served with a salad of baby spinach leaves and strips of roasted red capsicum, this made for a very tasty and satisfying dinner - a real autumn/winter warmer. Leftovers are great re-heated or at room temperature.

Savoury bread pudding

500g of stale bread, sliced or cubed
2 shallots, chopped finely
2 cups button mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon continental parsley leaves, roughly torn
3 cups milk
1 stock cube, dissolved in 1 cup hot water
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and lightly grease a baking dish.

Arrange the bread in the dish and then layer it with the shallots, mushrooms and parsley. If your bread's cubed, mix it up a bit; otherwise you could tuck some of the veges between the bread slices.

Whisk together the milk, stock, eggs and pepper. Pour it evenly over the bread, and then sprinkle over the grated cheese.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is browned and there's no liquid in the middle of the pudding. Let it sit out of the oven for about 10 minutes before serving.