Skip to main content

Uncover the Strata



In my first post this month of September, I featured Vegetable Pastel, a Del Monte Kitchenomics recipe. In that post I mentioned that I experimented on another menu called Strata. I got the recipe from my new recipe book, "The Old Farmer's Everyday Cookbook Almanac," given to me by my eldest daughter, Ayana Grace. I remember mentioning this cookbook in my June 30, 2012 post entitled, "A Legacy from my Mother-in-Law" (click here to view post).

Photo taken from Amazon.com
 Last Sunday, I gave the recipe, Strata, a try. I promised to feature it in another post so here…
Photo of Strata taken from The Old Farmers Everyday Cookbook Almanac
I was intrigued seeing the picture of Strata featured in one whole page of the cookbook. I must confess that the first thing that came to my mind was "stratum = the singular of strata". So I turned to page 13 where the recipe could be found. There, Strata is described as a dish made with crumbled bacon or shrimp, sauteed mushrooms or leeks, and any kind of bread (raisin, whole wheat or rye). It is prepared by making layers of bread cubes arranged alternately with other ingredients in a baking dish so that explains the name Strata.

 As I read through the recipe, I excitedly decided to give it a try because the recipe looked very simple and easy to follow. Besides, I almost had all the ingredients except for the parsley which I had to buy from the grocery.

Ingredients:
14 slices bread, crusts removed
1 cup diced cooked ham
2 cups shredded Swiss or cheddar cheese
1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
2 tbps chopped fresh basil or parsley
6 large eggs
3 1/2 cups milk
Salt and pepper, to taste


 Steps:
1. Cut the bread into cubes.


2. Generously grease a 13x9-inch baking dish.
3. Make a layer with half of the bread cubes, arrange them so that they cover the bottom of the dish. 


4. Sprinkle the ham, cheese, shallots and basil over the bread. 


 5. Cover with the remaining bread cubes.


 6. Beat the eggs and milk together in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
 7. Slowly pour the mixture over the top bread layer, saturating it evenly. 

 8. Cover and refrigerate overnight; the bread will soak up the liquid as the mixture stands.


9. Preheat the oven to 3250F.
10. Uncover the strata and bake for 1 hour, or until puffed and lightly browned.
Makes 8 to 10 servings.

For my own version, I doubled the recipe using Gardenia wheat bread. Then I used parsley because fresh basil was not available at the time. But sorry, I shortcut the process by allowing the mixture to stand only for 4 hours because I was too tired the night before to prepare the dish.

Here's my Strata, fresh from the oven. Hmmm... not the exact result that I expected as my oven ran out of gas just as I was starting to preheat, so I cooked the dish using my oven toaster. I was just too careful not to burn the topmost layer.

My officemates seemed to have liked it so I'm planning to make another one soon.

So there, I have kept my promise. Till the next blog post! :)

Linking to Home Maid and Simple foodie friday, Simple Living and Eating Foodie Friday
=====================
I was featured in:
BWS tips button

Comments

  1. Just wanted you to know that your soup is being featured on foodie friday. I will be pinning and tweeting it this week too. Stop by and get your featured button. Thanks again for joining us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diane, thank you so much for the feature! I sure will grab that precious button!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by and leaving a comment. Would love to see you back.

Most popular posts

Pesto Spanish Sardines Pasta: A Remake

There's a saying that goes, "One is enough, two is too much..." Uh uhhh, not for this!!! I'm referring to the Spanish Sardines Pasta which was my welcome post this year. My daughter, Ayana Grace, bought a bottle of pesto from the grocery store last month (she usually does...we seldom run out of pesto sauce in our cupboard) and I just wasn't able to resist making another try of the Pesto Spanish Sardines Pasta so here it is... Ingredients: 2 tbsps reserved oil from bottled sardines 2 tbsps olive oil 1 tbsp minced garlic 1/4 cup diced tomato 1 cup flaked Spanish sardines 1/3 cup Pesto sauce 1/4 cup pitted black olives 1/4 cup button mushrooms 1/2 kilo pasta noodles, cooked according to package instructions salt and pepper to taste Whole pieces of Spanish sardines (1 piece as topping per serving) Parsley for garnish   Steps: In a large saute pan, heat oil from sardines. Add olive oil as needed. Saute garlic until fragrant. Add diced

Ensaladang Mustasa

It's back to work today, after five days of rest, something I've been looking forward to. As if the  long Christmas holiday vacation was not enough :) Well, days just seem to fly so fast! Thanks to the additional non-working holidays brought about by the Pope's visit to my country, the Philippines. I had time to relax, stay at home, bond with family and yes, sort picture files in my computer. In between social networking, of course, I cooked for my family. With my husband home, there has to be fish and vegetables on the dining table. There was a bunch of mustasa (mustard) leaves left in the vegetable bin. What could be a better and perfect partner to fried fish than Ensaladang Mustasa (Mustard Salad)? Very simple and easy, here's how I did it. Ingredients: 1 bunch of mustasa leaves Rock salt 2 medium-sized tomatoes, sliced 1 small onion, sliced thinly 3 tbsps vinegar Iodized salt, ground pepper and sugar to taste Steps: 1. Cut mus

Ensaladang Alugbati (Malabar Spinach Salad)

This post appeared in my Facebook memories today. I'm glad it did! I featured this salad in my FB page a year ago.  Alugbati  (Malabar Spinach)  Salad (Ensaladang Alugbati). This came up when I received for the first time this bouquet of alugbati from Erik, my officemate. He shares with us fruits and veggies fresh from his garden.