The recipe Savory Bread Pudding is sponsored by Nestlé® Carnation. The content and opinions expressed here are mine.
Did you grow up eating savory bread puddings? Probably yes, but I’m sure they looked different from the ones my grandmother used to make with anything she had at hand.
Latinx recipes for bread pudding usually call for soaking the day-old bread and mashing it after.
Also, we separate the eggs, and the whites are whipped and carefully incorporated into the mixture. Latinx bread puddings are fluffy and delicate, almost like a souffle, but less complicated.
But whether doing traditional or Latinx bread puddings, the possibilities are vast. On the blog, you can find a cauliflower casserole and the one with zucchini, both old favorites. But consider this a base recipe for your future creations. If you don’t eat salmon, you can use cooked ground chicken, sausage, or beef. Or go vegetarian, nix the salmon, and add sautéed mushrooms.
Bread puddings rely on pantry and frozen ingredients to create a very nutritious dish, a complete meal for lunch or dinner.
Like I do year-around, I reach for the versatile Nestlé Carnation Evaporated Milk to soften the bread. It is perfect because, in a single step, I add the rich and delicious taste of evaporated milk, and I know I won’t end up with a watery pudding.
I used Carnation Evaporated Milk in the new tetra container, easy to close and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Remember that Carnation has, in addition to traditional evaporated milk, lactose-free, gluten-free, and organic milk varieties, all practical alternatives for cooking savory or sweet dishes.
Savory Bread Pudding
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Brunch
- Method: Oven baked
- Cuisine: Latin
Description
A quick and delicious addition to a brunch.
Ingredients
• 4 Slices of white bread, chopped
• 1 Cup of Carnation Evaporated Milk
• 3 Eggs
• 200 Grams of smoked, cooked or canned salmon or tuna, shredded or ½ pound of cooked ground chicken, sausage, beef or sauteed mushrooms
• 1 Bag (1 pound) of assorted vegetables thawed and drained
• Salt and pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 400F or 200C.
2. In a large bowl, toss the bread with the Carnation Evaporated Milk. Let it soak for 5 minutes. Mash with a fork.
3. Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the soaked bread. Beat the egg whites to hard peaks.
4. Mix the yolks, bread and salt, and pepper. Add the vegetables and salmon or meat. Stir.
5. Add half of the whipped whites and with a spatula fold into the mixture. Do the same with the rest.
6. Move to a casserole, spread well, and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
What differentiates the Chilean ceviche from the Peruvian and other versions from countries in Latin America? Let’s see, the size of the pieces of fish: in the Chilean ceviche the fish is cut small, I remember how sometimes my grandmother did it with cubes of 1/2 cm, almost ground. The onion variety, in the Chilean version, is always Spanish or yellow onion. And finally the other ingredients: that are minimal in the Chilean case: bell peppers, if desired, and cilantro. In the Peruvian version, the corn and the sweet potato abound and the onion is the purple variety and chopped in half-moons.
When I was a girl, I hated soups, and the truth is, now as an adult, I find them passable, but they are never my first choice, not even this Chilean Seafood Soup or Caldillo de Mariscos, that it’s very traditional. I prefer vegetable creams or legumes to soups.
Back to school lunch ideas: Here in Houston, we just started the school year, and now I have to send two school lunches every day. We have negotiated a Solomonic solution with my kids. They have a very Chilean passion for bread, so one week they take three days of the week a sandwich, following week only two days and the rest is hot or cold food from home. Still, figuring out what to send is not easy for me.
When I tried this fish was like going back to my grandmother’s kitchen, the flavors were perfect.
The holidays and end-of-year dinners are coming soon, and one thing I learned from my mother is that you need to plan and decide on a menu that allows you to make some things in advance. This starter or appetizer Smoked Salmon Roulade with Cream Cheese and Avocado Cream is tasty, easy to make, unique, and is served cold.
The stuffing with cream cheese and vegetables is tasty and has a beautiful color. You can use different vegetables and give it a personal touch. For the sauce, I used plain yogurt, which combined with the cucumber and avocado make for a very fresh and tasty sauce. I never stop being amazed by how flexible dairy products are. The avocado and cucumber sauce is also perfect for salad dressing or dipping sauce.
