How to Cook Well at Christmas with Rory O'Connell airs on RTÉ One at 7:30pm on Sunday, 22 December, and 7pm Monday, 23 December.
Ingredients
The meat in this recipe can be omitted to achieve a lovely cheese and bread pudding. A meat-free version is easily done by replacing the turkey and ham with a similar weight of cooked vegetable such as roasted squash peppers or red onions.
Serves 6-8
- 12 slices of best quality white bread
- 50-75g butter
- 100g finely chopped cooked turkey
- 100g finely chopped cooked ham
- Pinch of dried chilli flakes
- 60g grated gruyere
- 60g grated parmesan
- 450ml cream
- 225ml milk
- Pinch of grated nutmeg
- 4 large eggs
- Pinch of chilli flakes
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1x 20 x 25cm oven-proof dish, lightly buttered
Method
- Remove the crusts from 8 of the 12 slices of bread. Butter all of the slices and lay 4 crustless slices buttered side down on the buttered dish. Scatter on half of the turkey and ham.
- Mix the two cheeses together and sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese on the turkey and ham followed by a sprinkling of chilli flakes.
- Arrange another 4 of crustless bread slices on the meat. Scatter on the remaining turkey and ham, another 1/3 of the cheese and a pinch of chilli flakes. Finish the dish with the remaining 4 slices of bread, buttered sides down and sprinkle on the remaining cheese.
- In a bowl, whisk together the cream, milk, nutmeg and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the bread. Let the pudding stand at room temperature of 1 hour or place in the fridge if resting for several hours.
- Preheat the oven to 180c.
- Place the pudding in a deep roasting tray in the oven. Pour water from a boiling kettle to come half way up the sides of the pudding dish. Bake for c 1 hour until the pudding is well coloured, fells gently firm to the touch and the custard is no longer liquid.
- Serve the pudding on hot plates with an appropriate salad to accompany.
