Everybody wants a failsafe strata recipe of their arsenal, notably at festive instances of the 12 months, or, certainly, any time when your house is visited by hordes of individuals. This thrifty turn-of-the-century model of bread pudding is likely one of the greatest methods to feed a big group of individuals simply, cheaply, and with minimal fuss for optimum impact.
“Strata” after all, refers to “layers,” which is the structure of a strata: cubes of toasted or day-old (or, let’s be sincere, stale) bread are layered with one thing like mushrooms, ham, or sausage, and cheese, then your entire building is flooded with a creamy custard combination of eggs, milk, and in my case: bitter cream. Strata made a triumphant comeback within the Eighties when Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins included it in one in every of their bestselling “Silver Palate” cookbooks, which is when my household made it the centerpiece of Christmas or Boxing Day — or each. It’s the excellent “blotting paper” if a festive brunch is boozy or when you’ve overdone the festivities the evening earlier than: it places you proper again on the map. Strata’s nice enchantment for me is that I can assemble it prematurely, then let it have a pleasant lengthy soak in a single day, needing solely to pop it into the oven the subsequent morning, and voila! I’m the hostess with the mostess!
Strata was solely leisure or vacation fare till 2017, when my husband and I lived for a number of months in Riga, the capital of Latvia. For somebody concerned about meals, Vikings, and Medieval structure, this was a dream come true. I didn’t wait to unpack, however headed straight to Riga’s famend Central Market, which dates again to the Hanseatic League, however at this time is famously housed in three cavernous World Conflict II airline hangers. It was reassuringly sufficient like my favourite Moscow markets to make me really feel proper at dwelling with its golden-teethed butchers slamming complete sides of lamb onto filthy butcher blocks, rosy-cheeked girls in starched aprons over their nylon parkas promoting thick bitter cream and wealthy butter, and a whole room devoted to salted and smoked fish. However there have been new treats in retailer as nicely, such because the delectable quince syrup, a curious elixir known as “balsam,” and the astonishingly massive loaves of dense, bitter rye bread, that are a trademark of Latvian delicacies.
At first, my husband and I struggled to get by even half of a loaf of Latvian rye earlier than it began to harden. However as I started to know Riga’s foodies higher, I discovered the numerous methods these quietly modern and artistic individuals parlay their leftover bread earlier than it goes stale: into rusks, breadcrumbs, croutons, and most deliciously into delectable bread pudding desserts. It was then that I started to mess around with these concepts in my very own Riga kitchen, and that’s how this model of strata advanced. Whereas I’ve loved it with ham and sausage, I discover that flakes of oily smoked fish, briny capers, and tart shallots and scallions supply the most effective distinction to the distinctive style of Riga’s dense, bitter, and really marvelous rye bread.
What follows is probably not a lot as recipe, as a lot as a love letter to Riga’s fantastic meals tradition, which makes on daily basis a vacation.
