For the last 5 years, I have wanted to post a strata recipe on Malabar Tea Room. It began, like many strata journeys of my generation, with watching Jessica Parker drop a big casserole dish of it on Christmas morning in the movie The Family Stone.
Something about it caught my imagination, and for several months after, I made my own quick version for breakfast everyday. I had an oven-safe bowl into which I’d tear up a pao, i’d mix two eggs with some milk, into which I’d stir in a big spoonful of chilli crisp, pour this over the pao, and top with cheese. It would bake until the tops were bubbling and the cheese turned golden. A very Malabar Tea Room recipe, now that I think about it. Straightforward, lazy-girl friendly, and open to many variations.
A strata is essentially a savoury bread pudding, and once you think of it that way, it opens up so many possibilities, doesn’t it? I’d been dreaming of one with prawns in it, so mum and I came up with one that’s a bit like if a prawn toast were to become more wholesome and family-friendly. The prawns get chopped up and mixed with some garlic, sesame oil, green chillies and coriander, spread on some toast, bathed in egg+ milk, and blanketed with melty cheese. What’s not to love? It takes all of 10 minutes to put together, and you sit down to something that tastes like something a grandmother somewhere put all of her love and attention into. You get what I mean.
RECIPE: Prawn STRATA
Ingredients
200 grams prawns that have been cleaned and deveined
7 thick slices of bread (use brioche if you have it — anything really, maybe with the exception of brown bread)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
small handful of coriander leaves
1.5 cups milk
3 eggs
1 cup shredded melty cheese (I used Amul for old times sake — use cheddar, edam, gouda, a little mozz mixed with cheddar)
Method
Toast the bread until it’s nice and crisp.
In the smallest jar of your mixie, blitz the prawns with the sesame oil, garlic, green chillies, coriander leaves, soy sauce and salt. Make sure it’s a smooth paste.
Now spread this paste on the toasted bread.
Cut each piece of bread into 4.
Grease a small baking dish with butter. I used an 8 cup one, but you can use any as long as it’s small enough for the 3 cups of liquid to cover all the bread.
Transfer the cut-up pieces of toast into the baking dish. Don’t worry about arranging it.
In a small bowl, mix the eggs with milk and salt.
Pour this over the toast and try to submerge all the pieces of bread under the milk.
Let it sit for 5 minutes to absorb some of the liquid.
Now give it one last squish, to make sure it’s properly covered with the liquid.
Top with the shredded cheese and cover with foil.
Bake in a preheated oven at 190 Celsius for 20 minutes.
Remove the foil, and let it bake for another 10 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
Serve hot and enjoy!