I'm a big lover of bread sauce. Its nursery food warmth and porridge-like consistency make it a staple winter side. I can imagine it in ornate dishes on dining tables at country houses when the season brought game to the table, or as an occasional treat for people of lesser means: at its core, it's really just bread and milk. This version is still flavoured with the gentle spices of nutmeg, clove and cinnamon, but can be done without infusing milk for hours. If you don't have stale bread, then dry sliced bread out in the oven. It's much better here than using the boxed crumbs meant for deep-frying. This is also an excellent base for a meal - don't treat it as just a sauce. If you reduce the milk content then it can be an excellent savoury porridge to top with roasted meats and cooking juices, or smoked fish pieces. You can also make croquettes by tearing up leftover meat, cutting veg into small pieces and mixing it into bread sauce. Leave it to cool, then either egg-and-flour pieces and deep fry, bake again in an oven or pan fry on a high heat. Eat with leftover gravy.
- half an onion, or 2/3 shallots
- 1 garlic clove
- 400ml milk
- 10 cloves
- a good pinch of ground cinnamon
- a decent knob of butter
- two fists' worth of stale bread, well chopped.
- a trickle of double cream. to finish
- Peel and chop the onion and garlic. If you have a blender then a rough chop will do - if not, then finely dice.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan. Sweat the onion and garlic with the spices for 5-7 minutes, adding more butter if necessary. The onion can go slightly golden around the edges, but don't let the heat darken it too much.
- Once the onion is soft, pour in the milk and stir well. The cloves will float to the top - fish them out with a spoon.
- Cut or tear the bread into roughly sweetcorn-sized bits. Stir into the milk and season.
- Heat and stir the sauce until it gets slightly thicker than you like. Finish it with a splash of double cream and some of the cooking juices from the meat, if you're roasting something.