Taste
Strata: layered leftovers
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
The guests are gone. The Thanksgiving meal is almost a week behind us.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
But your kitchen probably still harbors a few holiday postscripts: a half-dozen eggs and some aging bacon you bought for the family brunch, a chunk of that expensive cheese you needed for the appetizer, some cream left over from the dessert topping, a bunch of parsley, a half-used can of chicken broth and a rock-hard loaf of French bread that never got eaten.
This spinach and Gruyere cheese strata was made with crusty La Brea country-style bread. It tasted great hot, at room temperature and even cold.
Don't think of them as leftovers. Think of them as strata — a layered casserole of bread, milk-and-egg custard, cheese and other good things that's an excellent way to use up tasty bits and aging bread for an easy breakfast, lunch, brunch or even a light dinner.
Strata is the contemporary name for a recipe that's at least a half-century old and that is enjoying a bit of a revival. Several versions, for example, are featured in excellent soon-to-be-released book, "The America's Test Kitchen Cookbook," (Boston Common Press, hardback, $29.95) written by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine and based on the recipes, ratings, tastings and experiments on the hit public TV show of that name.
Strata recipes have been adopted by bed-and-breakfast operations around the country as a reliable, make-ahead dish for a crowd. The Web site recipecottage.com lists more than 40 strata recipes in its breakfast archives and a search for "strata recipe" brought up more than 7,000 versions.
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Strata has been called, variously, bread souffle (in a vintage edition of a Junior League cookbook from Washington state), cheese casserole (in older editions of "Joy of Cooking") and "poor man's quiche" (in several community cookbooks).
The basic idea is the same: Line a casserole with buttered day-old bread, sprinkle the bread with cheese and/or other ingredients, pour on an uncooked custard made of beaten eggs and milk, cream or other ingredients, allow some time for the custard to soak into the bread and then bake until golden-brown and puffy.
The name strata refers to the layering of the ingredients; some versions are made in a deeper casserole, with several layers of bread and cheese. Even strata made in shallow cake pans are composed of three layers.
Marilyn White, 78, of Honolulu, recalls strata well. "It was a 'luncheon' dish," she said, making quote marks with two crooked fingers, "in the days when ladies had luncheons."
She remembers the strata of those 1940s and '50s club meetings and card parties as airy concoctions of white bread with the crusts removed and mild cheese ("I'm afraid some people even used processed cheese or Velveeta," she said with a guilty expression). Flavoring generally were limited to a shake or two of salt and some paprika for coloring or, for the really adventurous, a teaspoon of mild curry powder.
"Those were the days when we didn't worry about calories or fat," White said. "But we really didn't go for much flavor, either. The idea that you might use a spicy sausage or put some garlic in a recipe was pretty much a no-no. And especially not for 'ladies.'"
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| The makings of a strata — a bread casserole — aren't fancy: eggs, day-old bread, cheese and spinach.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Today's stratas are often lighter in terms of fat but have a lot more texture and can be quite adventurous, although the editors of "Test Cookbook" say it's best not to load the casserole up with too many rich ingredients.
Limit yourself to one or two complementary types of cheese, and one other ingredient, such as a meat or vegetable. The editors suggest using half-and-half rather than cream, to limit richness, and that you saute all filling ingredients before composing the strata.
They like to use slices rather than chunks of bread to get a true layered effect. And they recommend using a "heavy hand" with salt and pepper because the bland bread really needs the seasonings to brighten the flavor.
Be wary of too much fat in a strata or the casserole may be greasy; if you use bacon or sausage, saute it, or, better yet, poach it to melt away fat while maintaining moisture. Drain and pat dry before chopping the meats up for use in the strata.
For the most cohesive texture, assemble the strata in advance (an hour minimum but overnight is best), covering it with plastic wrap and weighting the top down with 2 (1-pound) boxes of brown or powdered sugar. The rested and weighted stratas the Cooks Magazine editors tested had the most custard-like, cohesive texture.
Strata can vary widely in texture, however, and it's very much a matter of your preference. Much depends on the type of bread you choose; rough, crusty country-style breads (campagne or pain sur levain, for example) offer a bit more tooth than conventional loaf breads. The texture also is affected by how much and what type of liquid is used; the more liquid and the richer the liquid (cream as opposed to half-and-half or milk) the denser and softer the texture.
Some time ago, when all that was left in the refrigerator were odds and ends, I made what I call a "dry" strata that was almost a stuffing: I sauteed minced onions and parsley in a little butter, cut some La Brea country-style bread into 1-by-1-inch chunks, tossed the mixture together with some grated Parmesan, a few knobs of goat cheese and a crank or two of pepper and then pressed it into a shallow casserole.
I was short on eggs and out of cream, so instead of the usual milk-and-egg custard, I moistened the bread by drizzling leftover chicken broth over the whole, let it sit for a brief time to absorb the liquid and baked it at 325 until the strata was golden and crisp on top. I served the strata with an over-easy egg on top and got rave reviews.
Don't try making strata with quick breads (those made with leavening other than yeast), you'll end up with a soggy mess because these breads aren't as cohesive as yeast breads.
