The Farm Kitchen Cookbook, Volume One

Description

Sample Recipe:

Brioche Bake

There is a large celebration held each and every July on the Farm when the veggies and fruits are just making their presences known. Usually Pig is smoked and pulled and slathered in sauce of the bar-be-que variety and pies beyond number are sliced and consumed and besides all this there is music and dancing and general fun being had. And at the end of it all, some even choose to stay the night on the Farm and those who do enjoy the real treat: a Fireside Breakfast just as the sun is rising and the turkeys gobbling. There is always coffee, freshly percolated over said fire, homegrown sausage squares, and this; the Brioche Bake.

The title hardly does it justice. It should be called freshly-baked-brioche-drunken-in-custard-doused-with-lemon-zest-and-dotted-all-along-and-through-with-blueberries-and-goat-cheese. Oh, yes. And don’t forget the slathered-in-maple-syrup-part. (Of course you would never do that—that would be tragic!)here is a large celebration held each and every July on the Farm when the veggies and fruits are just making their presences known. Usually Pig is smoked and pulled and slathered in sauce of the bar-be-que variety and pies beyond number are sliced and consumed and besides all this there is music and dancing and general fun being had. And at the end of it all, some even choose to stay the night on the Farm and those who do enjoy the real treat: a Fireside Breakfast just as the sun is rising and the turkeys gobbling. There is always coffee, freshly percolated over said fire, homegrown sausage squares, and this; the Brioche Bake.

And since that name is too complicated by miles, we will go with the original and call is just as it is: Brioche Bake.

And this is how it’s to be done:

A loaf of brioche bread is cut or torn or generally broken apart until it is six cups of smallish pieces. This bread is placed in a nine by thirteen-inch baking dish that has been slathered with butter (bacon fat works just as well). In a separate bowl, four egg yolks are whisked together with three cups half and half (or milk, if you prefer, but please, no skim—we like our fat around here), along with a quarter cup of sugar of the granulated variety until all is yellowed and smooth.

Now. It may be flavored however you wish. A dash of cinnamon. A grate (or four) of nutmeg. A teaspoon of vanilla or rum. Any and all will work for the usual bread pudding. But not today. Not for the Fireside Breakfast. No. A lemon is freshly zested (or a teaspoon of freshly minced lemon grass, lemon thyme, or lemon verbena may be substituted) over all, along with three ounces goat cheese, loosely crumbled and a cup of freshly plucked blueberries (any berry of your choosing may be used, as well as cherries or peaches, chopped small). All is tossed together with the hands followed by being pressed firmly into said nine by thirteen-inch pan. It is placed in the preheated three-hundred-and-fifty-degree oven and baked until puffed and golden—about forty-five minutes.

Now. The reason the Farmer’s Wife makes this dish each and every year is this: Not only do people love it, and not only can she use some of the produce of her Farm (eggs, herbs, blueberries), she is able to make it when she’s making everything else for the party, only instead of putting it in the pan as described above, she pours it into a gallon size plastic bag (takes up less space in the fridge on a day when fridge space is at a premium) and forgets about it. That way when the party is done and the sun rises the next day, all she has to do is pour the Brioche Bake mixture into a buttered pan and bake, all while enjoying that sunrise and some very good coffee along with her fa-vor-ite people—and some would say it is all the better for the resting (both the Farmer’s Wife and the Brioche Bake).