Bread sauce is a wonderful thing provided you make it yourself. The bizarre thing is that if you don’t have the time to do it yourself, I actually prefer the Knorr packet variety to the fresh ready-made goo that you can buy in Supermarkets, does that tell you something about my taste buds? Oh well…. I think the key to a great bread sauce is to keep the onions in it, if you cook them very gently and make sure they are finely chopped they make the flavour amazing. The other good thing, is that it freezes really well, so if you make it now, you can just take it out of the freezer on Christmas Eve.
We love bread sauce hot with our turkey on Christmas Day, but most of all we love it cold in the ultimate left-overs Boxing Day sandwich (turkey, bacon, cold stuffing, tomatos, mayonnaise, cranberry sauce and bread sauce – add avocado if you have any knocking around). Trust me, try it before you immediately dismiss the idea! Anyway, for it’s more traditional usage here is my recipe! I have got 10 people for lunch on Christmas Day and I have made double quantities.
Ingredients: 1 small or half of a large, mild white onion, finely chopped (don’t use a red onion, it won’t work), 10 cloves, 10 peppercorns, 1 bayleaf and 2 sprigs of thyme, 500ml full cream milk, 100g butter, 100g of dried white breadcrumbs or cubed, stale white bread, Salt and pepper to taste
To serve: 4 tablespoons double cream, knob of butter (what is a knob? No rude suggestions please! It is approximately 1 teaspoon), fresh grated nutmeg
Method
- Melt 100g butter in a saucepan on a low heat and add the finely chopped onion
- Sweat the onion gently (that means heat them gently on a low heat, don’t fry them), until soft and translucent for 5 to 10 minutess – do not allow to brown, they should be soft and translucent
- Add the cloves, peppercorns, bayleaf and thyme and the milk
- Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and stand for at least 2 hours or overnight if preferred
- Fish out the herbs, cloves and peppercorns (You’ll be very pleased you counted them!) but leave the lovely soft onion bits in
- Place over a low heat and add the breadcrumbs
- Bring to the boil
- Simmer for 3-4 minutes
- IF YOU ARE GOING TO FREEZE YOUR BREAD SAUCE, ALLOW IT TO COOL AND FREEZE NOW
- If you’re serving straight away,take off the heat, stir in the double cream and the knob of butter and serve with a sprinkling of nutmeg
If you have defrosted your bread sauce, place in a saucepan and add the 4 tablespoons of cream and the knob of butter and heat gently without boiling and serve as above.
I love these “Pour and Store” bags for freezing or for storing sauces and soups. They are a really handy shape and you can pour things in to them whilst they are still hot.
The Bombay Boys 