Savory Bread Pudding
As a result of my macaron-making, I had 18 egg yolks stored in the fridge. Unlike in the US, you can't find egg whites packaged in a carton, so I had to take whole eggs and separate them.
With the first 8 egg yolks, I made a lemon curd recipe from Everyday Food (link here). Turned out great like most Everyday Food recipes do.
With the next 10 egg yolks, I improvised and made a savory bread pudding since I didn't want more sweet stuff than I already had. You can improvise too - just know that you need stale bread, and enough liquid and fat to coat the bread and soften it in the oven.
1 pound of bread (about 1 and a half loaves of the no-knead bread)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 tsp thyme (dry or fresh)
1 minced garlic clove
6 tbsp butter
200g wild mushroom mix
6 dried shiitake, soaked in water
1 onion
2 leeks
1/3 cup parsley (fresh or frozen)
salt
pepper
1 cup stock
10 egg yolks
1 tbsp heavy cream
1/4 grated cheese
2 cups soy milk
(you can see I was using leftover cream and soy milk and cheese and stock, in addition to the leftover egg yolks!)
Instructions adapted from Bon Appétit, November 2006
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Cut bottom crust and short ends off bread and discard. Cut remaining bread with crust into 1-inch cubes (about 10 cups loosely packed). Place cubes in very large bowl. Add oil, thyme, and garlic; toss to coat. Spread cubes out on large rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until golden and slightly crunchy, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Return toasted bread cubes to same very large bowl.
Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add vegetables. Sauté until soft and juices have evaporated, about 15 minutes. Add sautéed vegetables and parsley to bread cubes.
Whisk heavy cream, egg yolks, stock, milk, cheese, salt, and ground pepper in large bowl. Mix custard into bread and vegetables. Transfer stuffing to prepared dish.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake stuffing uncovered until set and top is golden, about 1 hour. Let stand 15 minutes.
