Bread Sauce

You can’t get a more English accompaniment to a roast fowl than bread sauce.  I suppose in the old days it was a way of making the chicken, turkey or goose going a little further.

My dear friend Latifa was staying with us, and on her last day in wet dreary London before she flew off to Hong Kong, I thought I’d cook a traditional Sunday roast…chicken, potatoes roasted in goose fat, cabbage with pancetta and of course bread sauce.

I first cooked bread sauce for Latifa one Christmas and she absolutely loved it.

I always remember helping my father cook the Sunday lunch, and one of my jobs was bread sauce.  I really cannot stress how super easy this is to make, and really is a welcome addition to any Sunday lunch table.

Here’s what you need for lunch for 6:

Fresh breadcrumbs – white or brown, whatever you happen to have

Half an onion

Handful of whole cloves

2 or 3 bay leaves

Handful of whole black peppercorns

Pinch of mace

1 pint milk

Here’s what to do:

Stud half an onion with the whole cloves

Pour milk into saucepan

Add bay leaves, peppercorns and mace

Cover and bring the milk to the boil, and then take the saucepan off the heat, keeping the lid on so that all the flavours infuse into the milk.

Put the bread into a food processor and whizz into breadcrumbs, this will take no more than 10 seconds.

Towards the end of the preparation of your roast, the bread sauce is one of the last things you will need to do.

Remove the onion, peppercorns, bay and mace from the milk.  Add the breadcrumbs and stir in, and pop over a low heat to warm through, et voila…it is ready to serve with your glorious roast chicken….and of course with love…xoxo….