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Ombré Gratin
Alexa Weibel
2573 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,573
3 hours
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Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9- by 13- by 2-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter and set aside.
Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat in a medium (10-inch) sauté pan. Add the onion and sauté for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, the garlic and mushrooms, and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms start to brown. Add the sherry and rosemary and simmer for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the stuffing mix into a very large bowl. Stir in the mushroom mixture and cool for 5 minutes. Stir in 2 cups of the cheese.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, chicken stock, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Pour the custard mixture over the stuffing mixture and stir well. Set aside for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bread has absorbed most of the liquid. Transfer the entire mixture to the prepared baking dish and sprinkle evenly with the remaining cup of cheese.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the custard is set in the middle. Serve hot.
This thing was amazing!!! I used brioche bread, and more porcinis and wild mushrooms. It was absolutely fantastic and a wonderful dish to serve to vegetarian friends. I soaked it overnight after putting it together midafternoon the previous day. I used a very generous amount of fresh sage in it and double the garlic....
If you don't want to use sherry, use more chicken stock. Or a little mushroom stock, if you have it. Better Than Bouillon makes a mushroom stock base; mix 1/4 teaspoon into 1/4 cup boiling water.
Have been making this for years and its as tasty as it is forgiving. Can be made a day before making it even better!
Trader Joe’s sells a fantastic frozen mushroom medley. I keep two of these in my freezer at all times, it saves fridge space (especially around thanksgiving). They are great in this recipe.
This recipe is going to be our T'giving day breakfast. The family would revolt if I didn't make the cornbread and sausage southern dressing with gravy for the big meal. Thanks, Ina!
Notice quite a shift in Notes…all manner of questions. Make the recipe, substitute if you must (NYT Cooking has helpful guidelines for that), but asking others if it will work isn’t reasonable, try your idea and make the recipe. Get comfortable with ambiguity. Work through it without all the answers you believe you must have. Make the recipe, share.
Can this be made ahead and frozen?
I have a very similar recipe that uses 1.5 pounds of diced butternut squash (instead of mushrooms), sauteed with onions until just tender and then added to the bread pudding mixture and baked. Everything else is the same and it's delicious.
How easy is that?
Boursin and cream cheese are too soft. Gruyere is a harder cheese. I think the cream cheese would alter the balance between the bread and the custard. You could use a mild Swiss.
Yes. Her original recipe Mushroom And Leek Bread Pudding is described here with instructions on assembling it beforehand and then baking later. https://www.thekitchn.com/ina-garten-make-ahead-mushroom-and-leek-bread-pudding-23260954
Be careful with the salt. The store bought bread cubes are already a little salty. It was delicious.
Emmental, Jarlsberg, Raclette, Comté, Beaufort
I wouldn't bake it all the way through if you're going to bake it the day before. You don't want it to dry out. So I would par-bake it and then finish baking it the next day. Alternatively, it would be fine to assemble, leave refrigerated overnight, and then bake day of.
You can absolutely use vegetable stock instead -- I do this all the time.
I made with toasted bread cubes, not stuffing mix, and found it to be too wet and eggy to fill the stuffing niche on the Thanksgiving table, and overly rich from the heavy cream. I also missed sage and would add it next time.
I cut the recipe in half and there is still enough for the rest of the week. Fortunately, it is so delicious that I don't care. I subbed raclette for gruyere as the later was outrageously expensive, and it was fine. Used dry, cubed brioche with a lot of sage, and more rosemary than called for, as we don't have packages of stuffing here. Really good. 5 stars.
Most of our guest loved it but I wasn't such a fan. The texture was too mushy. Definitely toast the bread first.
A+ - delicious - my picky teen kids hoarded the leftovers. Our new stuffing go-to.
This has been a hit 2 years running now. An easy hack for the cream sherry from America's Test Kitchen: add 1 tsp dark brown to 1/4 cup dry sherry. As a non-drinker I still enjoy the flavor the sherry imparts. And if you can find it try Boudin Sourdough Classic Herb stuffing mix. Superior seasoning to the standby Pepperidge Farm brand, IMHO.
I just posted a note about making cream sherry with dry sherry. It should have read add 1 tsp dark brown SUGAR to 1/4 cup dry sherry. Thanks - didn't see a way to edit my note after submitting.
Used half cremini, half shiitake mushrooms. Chose an applewood-smoked Gruyère from Aldi . Couldn’t source Pepperidge Farm dressing mix in cubed version, so damned the torpedoes and used the standard crumb version. Fabulous results. Thank you, Ina Garten, for this and the countless other recipes of yours I have enjoyed cooking and eating over the years.
Did as directed but used part Jarlsburg and part Gruyere. Froze the leftovers, thawed to room temp and then re-warmed, covered, for 20 minutes at 375. If I make it again I will do the day ahead and then bake on the day of. Everyone loved it and it tasted just as good if not better coming out of the freezer.
Absolutely delicious side for baked chicken.
What category(ies) is this in, Saved in my recipe box but where? I made this with rice cooking wine and 1 tsp fine sugar added (sherry subst.), and used whole milk instead of half and half (because that's what I had) and those seemed to be fine substitutions. Baked covered until the last 10 minutes and then uncovered. Served with salmon and seafood, it made a nice side but I didn't know what to call it... pudding sounds like a dessert and it's not stuffing. "shroom/cheese breaded side dish"!
Can you use whole milk instead of half and half?
My butcher shop dices up prosciutto ends and sells them out of the case, and I added them to the mushroom saute. It was a nice addition, and I did think to cut back on salt. I did mix up a few types of mushrooms as well. Thanks to the commenter who suggested fresh sage, it was a nice addition. This is a fantastic dish, and will be trying a few different variations.
This is fantastic! I used about 4 Tbsp butter total.
Delicious. Used a dried-up leftover baguette instead of stuffing mix and added a box of frozen spinach (thawed, squeezed dry). Otherwise, made according to recipe. Really good and comforting. Next time, I'll let the bread soak overnight before baking.
The mushroom/sherry combo is delicious and very flavorful. It’s too much stuffing mix for me though, which detracted somewhat from the flavors. I’d recommend less breading and more mushrooms next time.
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