Bread sauce

Quintessentially a very British thing to have at Christmas as far as I know. But sadly so often just made with a packet and some hot water so never quite the way it should be. And why not make it the way you are supposed to make it. After all, if you do make it out of a packet you will find that you have made just as much washing up as you do if you make it properly.  So make your  Christmas dinner complete with your own bread sauce to go with the turkey?

You will need.

550ml/1 pint whole milk

1 onion

3 cloves

2 fresh bay leaves

150g/5¼oz sliced white bread

1 tsp English mustard

50g/1¾oz unsalted butter, diced

Salt, freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Put the milk, bay leaf and cloves in to a pan and bring them up to a boil then remove from the heat and strain threw a sieve. This will impart all the flavours of the spice in to the milk a bit like make a béchamel sauce. Now if you like you can put your onion in to the milk as well but I like to have my onion diced and in the sauce, the choice is yours.

Melt the half the butter on a low heat and dice the onions very finely and add them to the pan. Let them soften and sweat down then add some of the milk. Take your bread and dice it up in to cubes, now once more it is up to you if you cut the crusts off or leave them on, I leave mine on.  If you do cut the crusts off you might need some more bread.

 Add the cubes of bread to the milk and onion and work it until it starts to break down. Then add the rest of the milk. Cook slowly on a low heat for about 10 minutes and keep stirring regularly to prevent it from sticking.

Finally add the rest of the butter and the mustard then season with salt pepper and a little nutmeg to your taste and that is that. Now put it in a gravy boat, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place until ready to serve.

Trust me it is far superior to any thing you will ever make from a packet.