table talk / By Jada Calypso Brotman

Pudding for the People

savory bread puddings for winter nights

(Dec. 17, 2009)  ’Tis the season of hearty eating, and people keep coming over for dinner in ravenous droves. These are the kind of nights you want to sit around a table and schmooze and be warm. Meals have been complicated at Rancho Brotman this season by the variety of dietary needs of our neurotic friends; it can be challenging to find a delicious dish to accommodate everyone.

Savory bread pudding is an excellent crowd-pleasing choice; it can placate most foibles except anorexia, and it’s rich and flavorful and starchy. I pity the fool who doesn’t like rich, flavorful and starchy; in fact I doubt the fool’s existence. It’s probably not the best choice for vegans — I ‘ve searched high and low for a decent vegan bread pudding method, but haven’t found one I’m happy with. Some say you can substitute a half cup of blended silken tofu as a substitue for an egg, and you could use soy milk in place of dairy, and vegetable oil instead of butter, but I’ve tried it and found it unsatisfactory. While it was edible, without the eggs providing a lift, it came out far too heavy and stodgy.

Savory bread pudding. Photo by Bob Doran.

GALLERY >

Savory bread puddings can be made without wheat and/or meat, can be made in advance, and serve lots of people. They are warming and filling, which is just what the doctor ordered now that Humboldt has become Frost Town. They are also excellent ways of using all the lovely winter vegetables, like squash and kale, that need longer cooking. What doesn’t taste better baked in a rich batter? Hey, you have two weeks until New Year’s Resolution guilt kicks in. Make the most of it.

I could also tout the virtue of using stale bread rather than throwing it away, but who really ever has stale bread in this quantity? I never just “forget” to eat a loaf of bread. These recipes are worth breaking down and buying bread or, in the case of the second, whippin’ up some cornbread. You might want to have cornbread and chilli the night before, make extra cornbread and save the leftover portion for pudding.

Pancetta, Kale and Shittake Bread Pudding

Feeds 5 or 6.

NOTE: To make this vegetarian, leave out the pancetta and use vegetable stock. Use 3 T. butter and 2 T. olive oil instead of pancetta fat.

Ingredients:

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