Baked Leftovers

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There are the strangest of superstitions and beliefs and I consider this as one of those – if you do something today, on New Year day, you’ll be doing it for the rest of the year. So, if you spend money today, you’ll be doing that the rest of the year (oh no!), if you eat a lot today, you’ll be gorging the rest of the year (oh no no!), whatever animal you think of, the year will go by at a pace matching that animal’s (really, what will they come up with next!), and if you blog today, you’ll be blogging the rest of the year (Yes, Yes, Yes!)
Here’s a dish that I tried out yesterday – it’s a bake of leftovers and comes in handy when you have old bread that refuses to finish. I suppose it’s something like a soufflé with bits in it, it doesn’t have the velvetiness but it rises like one when it’s baking. It’s not my own recipe but I’ve seen it in several avatars in various books, but really, go ahead and do what you want – these are just guidelines:

Sandwich bread, crusts sliced off – 4 slices
Cooked prawns/veggies – a big handful, chopped
Eggs – 2, separated (* so that’s two yolks and two whites, beaten till stiff *)
Milk – 1¼ cups
Cheese – 4-5 cubes, cut up into bits/grated/just crumbled
Seasoning: Salt, pepper, mustard powder/chilli powder

Tear bread into pieces, soak in hot milk for 15-20 minutes. Add prawns, egg yolks, cheese and seasoning, mix well. Add egg whites, fold in well. Grease a baking dish and pop it into the oven.
I baked it for an hour at 180 C which I thought was too long, but the usual test – sticking a knife into it and seeing if it came out clean – took a long time. Funnily enough, it smells like sweet bread pudding and I felt full just inhaling it – I guess it was the combination of the milk and the bread, though why sandwich bread should result in a smell so sugary, I don’t know! After a while, I even began tasting the raisins (non-existent, of course)! It tastes fine, but there’s no correlation between the smell and the taste, know what I mean? Go ahead and try it, it takes little effort and makes a filling meal!
Tags: Leftovers Bread Prawns Baked dish