Savoury Bread Pudding (Puding Roti Berlauk)

You know I always cook up something for Monday night's Tajweed class... so on Tuesdays expect a Culinary Jam post :)
(But actually, I'm thinking of cooking something not so special next week coz I'm afraid of being labelled Muka Puding Roti (The bread pudding lady) .. I better vary my dishes a bit.. tee hee)

Okay as usual, background story:
Everytime I see a bread pudding, I had always wondered whether we could make it savoury instead of sweet. So once I got a reliable recipe for a sweet bread pudding, I decided to try to modify it to make it savoury.. substitute fruits with meat, sugar with cheese and vanilla with salt&pepper. And the result is as follows..


Tested an approved by Ar@mco Tajweed class of 2006 :laugh:

Savoury Bread Pudding (Puding Roti berlauk)

Filling:
500grams mince meat I used beef, but I guess you can subtitute with chicken or even tofu
1 tablespoon curry powder or any other spice of your choice, like seasoning for chilli or kurma
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 medium sized onion chopped roughly
1 can pieces and stems of mushrooms saves time ;) .. you may use fresh mushrooms and chop them up
100grams cashew nuts or your choice of nuts, chopped/ground roughly
1 tablespoon or 1/2 a cube of stock beef, chicken or vegetable.., dissolved in a bit of water
salt&pepper to taste
a handful of raisins (optional)
olive oil for sauteing

Bread pudding proper:
6-8 pieces of bread
cream cheese I use Kr@ft
shredded Mozarella cheese I used a whole packet of 200grams
250ml Evaporated milk
250ml whipping cream
3 whole eggs
salt&pepper

Method:
Prepare the filling:
Marinate the mince meat with the curry powder and oyster sauce for roughly 30 minutes. Saute onions in a bit of olive oil till wilted and slightly browned, then add in the meat. Add the stock liquid. Cook well before adding in the mushrooms, cashew nuts and raisins. Season with salt&pepper to taste. Can be prepared a day before and kept in an airtight container in the fridge. (also good in toasted sandwiches.. yummy)
To make the bread pudding:
In a bowl, mix well evaporated milk, whipping cream, 3 eggs and salt and pepper. Set aside and ready to ladle.
Butter well your baking dish at the bottom and sides. Spread cream cheese on one side of the bread, cut off the crust (save the crust) and then cut the remaining bread into small pieces. Arrange bread in a layer, cheese side up. Ladle on the milk+egg mix till bread is covered. Layer on the meat, then the mozarella cheese. Then put another layer of bread (cheese side up), ladel milk+eggs, meat and mozarella and so on till you almost reach the top of the baking dish. Arrange the bread crust on the very top layer, pour the remaining milk+eggs mixture over.
Let stand for at least an hour while you pre-heat your oven to 350deg Farenhite.
Put a few dollops of butter on the top crust, then bake for 45minutes to an hour.

The arranged crust gave an interesting look to the finished dish, and gave a crunchy texture.
I made some gravy to go with it, but my friends said it was good enough to eat without the gravy. (Gravy: saute finely chopped garlic till fragrant, add half a cup water, 2 chicken stock cubes and a bit of soy sauce for color. Add cornflour mixed in water - adjust for your desired thickness. Season to taste. Strain before serving for that smooth texture)(Or use a gravy mix that u can find in the supermarket .. tee hee)

We had the savoury bread pudding for supper, but I guess it could be eaten for breakfast or tea or even dinner (with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables on the side perhaps?). I had some leftovers for breakfast with some ketchup.. :p