Bread sauce is, more often than not, served as an accompaniment to the British Christmas roast dinner, but to cook and serve this just once a year would be something of a travesty. It is soothing and savoury and sits very well next to pretty much anything that once had wings. If you ever have a craving for bread sauce, it ought to inspire you to roast or pan-fry a chicken, guinea fowl, pheasant, grouse, duck or partridge. Alongside, or sprinkled over the top, the baked parsnip crisps add sweetness and crunch and complement the smooth sauce and any poultry perfectly.
Ingredients
Bread Sauce
- 700 ml milk
- 100 g butter
- 10 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 onion, quartered
- 8 black peppercorns
- ⅙ nutmeg, freshly grated
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 150 g soft white breadcrumbs
- 100 ml double cream
- Sea salt
Parsnip Crisps
- 600 g parsnips
- 3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil
- Sea salt
How to Make It
- Start with the bread sauce. Put the milk, 60 g of the butter, the cloves, bay leaves, onion, peppercorns, nutmeg and rosemary in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring almost to the boil, then simmer gently for 5–10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for at least 1 hour, then strain into a clean pan and discard the aromatics.
- Meanwhile, make the crisps. Peel the parsnips, then use a mandolin to cut paper-thin circles, starting with the tip. If you don’t have a mandolin, use a peeler to strip very thin lengths off the parsnips. Place in a large bowl, drizzle with oil and mix well.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 and line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats or baking parchment. Spread the parsnip slices out over the baking sheets, ensuring they don’t clump together (you may need to do this in batches), and bake for 10 minutes. Turn them over and bake for 10 minutes more, or until golden and crisp. Once cooked, line the large bowl with kitchen paper and tip the parsnips in. Let the paper soak up some of the oil and season generously with salt. Set aside to cool.
- To finish the bread sauce, bring the infused milk to a gentle simmer. Add the breadcrumbs and stir or whisk until incorporated. Turn the heat right down to the lowest setting and cook for 10–15 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally to stop it catching. Add a good pinch of salt, the cream and remaining butter and stir until incorporated. It should be the consistency of a loose porridge add more milk if you need to. Taste to check the seasoning and add more salt, pepper and/or nutmeg if you wish.
- Put the parsnip crisps in a communal bowl, sprinkle with more salt if needed and encourage everyone to take a handful alongside their sauce.
