A lucky experiment

Yesterday we popped into our favourite cheese shop, Neal's Yard Dairy, to buy some cheese for brunch today. The guy behind the counter asked what it was for, so I told him I wanted to make an experimental cheese bread pudding. A look of disgust flashed across his face so I quickly explained - my idea was for a cross between a cheese souffle and a savoury bread pudding. A springy macaroni and cheese, but with bread instead of macaroni. His face brightened a little, and he helped us find a fantastic cheese (Montgomery's Cheddar), but I don't think he was convinced.


Well I wish he had been there this morning to try some. The dish was light and fluffy but had substance enough to take the place of the scrambled eggs in our brunch spread. The rich, creamy flavour and slight bite of the cheddar didn't overwhelm the eggs in the custard. The chives gave it a little bit of freshness - but not too much. No need to get complicated here.

We had this with some grilled bacon, roasted tomatoes and new potatoes baked with spring onions, garlic, olive oil and salt. Oh, and some blood orange mimosas...


Montgomery's Bread Pudding
serves 4

2 eggs and 2 egg yolks, beaten
400 mL whole milk
2 tbsp chives, finely chopped
4 cups bread cubes, crust removed (preferable white sourdough, but anything quite plain will do)
2 eggs whites
1 1/2 cups grated Montgomery's Cheddar (or other creamy, melting cheese, although nothing blue)

Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F). Boil a kettle full of water. Butter a small baking dish with a 1 litre capacity and find another dish in which it will sit to make a water bath. The water should be able to come at least half way up the side of the baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat the milk into the eggs and yolks. Season with pepper and add the chives and bread crumbs, stirring to ensure all are coated and soaked through. Stir in 1 cup of the grated cheese.

In another large bowl beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Fold gently into the egg and bread mixture until just combined. Season lightly with salt and then empty the mixture into the buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup grated cheese on the top.

Place the smaller dish inside the larger one and fill the larger dish with the boiled water to make the water bath. Place in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes or until it is spring and firmy to the touch and a peek into the middle shows a moist but not liquid centre.

Serve immediately.

Birchermuesli

The rather fortunate fallout from our recent Swiss adventure is my renewed obsession with birchermuesli. Served by Dr Maximillian Bircher Benner at his Zurich sanatorium around the turn of the 20th century, it has maintained its healthy reputation (although the original required condensed milk for hygiene reasons) as it has gained popularity. It's as common as gipfeli (Swiss croissants) for breakfast in the alps.
Don't be mistaken - this is no ordinary muesli. Made well, birchermuesli has none of the stale, sawdust quality that some mueslis have. Although derived from birchermuesli, store-bought Alpen can't compete - partially because the real thing is not a dry cereal at all, but rather a rich, creamy chilled mixture of soaked oats, fresh fruit and dairy products. There are many acceptable permutations of the ingredients, but so far my homemade one involves the following: apples, oats, yoghurt and raspberries. I would hazard a guess that my favourite Swiss version included some whipped cream, maybe even the original condensed milk, but I'm trying to keep to the healthy roots.


The apple is grated, which gives the dish some sweetness from the juice and texture from the shreds of apple. Traditionally the texture would be even more important since the oats would be soaked overnight, but I don't usually have the time to plan that far in advance and I quite like the extra bite.


Much like porridge, birchermuesli isn't always the most appealing looking dish when it's served, but it can easily be jazzed up with some fresh fruit. I've seen kiwi and physillis adorning a bowlful in the most remote of mountain villages in Switzerland so I can assure you this is more than acceptable - as is eating this as an early evening meal.


Birchermuesli
(makes enough for 2)

1 firm apple
1 cup nutty muesli or 3/4 cup rolled oats and 1/4 cup toasted nuts
approx. 1 cup yoghurt
handful of raspberries
fruit to garnish

Grate the apple, preferably in a food processor. Add muesli/oats, yoghurt and all but a few raspberries and combine until the yoghurt has soaked through and the raspberries have stained the whole mixture a rich pink. Serve and garnish with the remaining raspberries and/or any other fruit.

Eat immediately or chill for up to a few hours.

More possibilities:
- Soak the muesli/oats overnight in water, milk or fruit juice.
- Use a combination or yoghurt, greek yoghurt, creme fraiche and/or whipped cream
- Stir in sliced banana, blueberries, halved grapes or virtually any other fruit according to season
- Add extra toasted nuts or dried fruits just before serving

Addendum: This is my entry for Kochtopf's apple day event in honour of apple season. According to Kochtopf, apples are the most popular fruit in Switzerland, and I can believe it with so many great recipes to use them in, including the Zürcher Pfarrhaustorte that she blogged about for the event.

Cheesed-off

Oh, the irony. I just came back from my local gourmet food store where I was browsing for dinner ideas. I decided, while in the vegetable aisle, to make some guacamole and have it with black beans and rice. I gathered ingredients then headed over to the bountiful cheese section to find something to go on top of the beans. I wanted to use a Mexican cheese - preferably Cotija, the salty, crumbly one, but Oaxaca cheese, the melty one, would do.

Of the hundreds of cheeses on offer, not one was Mexican. This in a store where the vast majority of staff are Hispanic, some from Mexico, and in a city with a growing Mexican population. The bias is towards European cheese, as it usually is, but there are hardly any American cheeses on offer either. In the end I had to buy Ricotta Salata to stand in for Cotija.

I know the reasons behind this - there is not much demand for Mexican ingredients at gourmet food stores in downtown Manhattan, there are probably hundreds of other stores in the city that sell it - but there are some anomalies. They sell fresh corn tortillas, why not Mexican cheese? Frozen burritos, enchiladas and quesadillas, but no cheese to make them. Sad.

Hausgemacht Fro-Yo

For all of the frozen yogurt lovers who were as disappointed with Pinkberry as I was (see the post), I think I may have found a good alternative. Heidi Swanson over at 101 Cookbooks just blogged about a great recipe from David Lebovitz's new book, The Perfect Scoop. It's simple (containing just yogurt and sugar, with optional vanilla) and adaptable, so you can make the frozen treat to your taste at home, which I am going to try as soon as possible. Check out her post for the recipe and gorgeous photograph.

Designer "Fro-Yo"

I can’t wait to try pinkberry. A friend told me that it has taken SoCal by storm – to the extent that it is bothering him that people won’t stop talking about it. Apparently everyone says their frozen yogurt 'really tastes like yogurt'. I’ve got to try some. I didn’t even know that it existed, let alone that there are three branches in New York. I already have a soft spot (excuse the pun) for Yogen Fruz, so let’s see how pinkberry measures up. From what I can see on the website the décor is definitely a step up from the Fruz's, including Philip Starck ghost chairs. Not too shabby.