STRATA

Categories: Breakfast/Brunch

Ingredients

• 5 cups cubed French bread (with crust)
• Grated cheese (see variations)
• 10 large eggs
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• 1 tsp. salt
• Filling ingredients (see variations)

Directions

1. Butter a 9X13" baking dish. Put bread cubes in a the dish and sprinkle them with the cheese. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard, and salt. Pour the egg mixutre over the bread cubes. Sprinke the filling ingredients over the egg mixture and fold them in gently. Cover and chill for at least four hours and up to 24 hours.

2. at oven to 350.

3. Uncover the baking dish and bake for 60 minutes until the mixutre has puffed up slightly and is golden brown on top and the starat doesn’t shimmy with uncooked custard when you shake the pan. Tent the dish with foil if the top is browning too quickly. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. Serve by the spoonful, using a large serving spoon.

4. Five Variatons:

5. Bacon, cheddar, mushroom and tomato: Sprinkle 2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese over the bread cubes. Distribute 1 cup cumbled cooked bacon (6-8 strips), 1 cup sauteed sliced white or shitake msuhrooms, and 1 cup chopped tomatoes over the egg mixture.

6. Chicken, broccoli, corn, chiles, jack: Sprinkle 2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese over the bread cubes. Dsitribute 1 cup0 frozen corn kernes, 1 cup cooked broccoli florets, two 4-5 oz cans drained chopped green chiles, and 1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken over the egg mixture.

7. Ham, Swiss, Asparagus: Sprinkle 2 cups grated Swiss cheese over the bread cubes. Distribute one cup blanced asparagus poieces, 1 cup cubed ham, and 1/2 cup carmelized onions voer the mixture.

8. Fontina, spinach, salami, and roasted garlic: Sprinkle 2 cups Fontina cheese over the bread cubes. Distribute 1 cup frozed chopped spinach, 1 cup Italian salami (cut into matchsticks), and 1/2 cup roughly choped roasted garlic cloves.

9. Vegetable-Blue Cheese: Sprinkle 1 cup crumbled blue cheese over the bread cubes. Distribute 1 cup cooked cubed celery root, 1 cup sauteed sliced zucchini, and 1/2 cup sauteed sliced onions over the mixture.

10. For carmelized onions: Melt 3 tbsps. unsalted butter with 2 tbsps. olive oil in a sate pan over medium heat. Add 1 large onion, thinly sliced, turn down heat ot medium-low and saute slowly for 20 minutes until the union caramelizes a bit.

11. asted garlic: Heat oven to 400. Place a square of foil, large enough to make a bundle around however many bulbs of garlic you plant to toast, on a work surface. Cut about 1/4" off the top of the garlic bulbs and place them on the foil, cut side up. Sprinkle each bulb with about 1 tsp. olive oil, and gather foil to make a bundle. The budle doesn’t need to be airtight but it should be gathered at the top. Roast for abour 1 hour until soft. Then remove the garlic from the oven and let it cool, still bundled up for at least 10 minutes. Open the budnle, separate the cloves, and peel them by popping the garlic out of the skins. The garlic shoud be softr and golden brown. Roasted garlic keeps up to a week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

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