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INSTRUCTOR: All of my bread cooking recipes
stem from the idea that I do not want to waste a crumb of bread.
From crust to the very last crumb,
there's the work of the baker.
There's the work of the miller.
There's the work of the grower.
And that value chain should not be wasted once the bread goes
dry or is even stale.
The recipe we're looking at right
now is pain perdu, a savory pain perdu.
I use the French word because it really
represents and illustrates the term we usually
use in America, French toast.
Pain perdu means lost bread.
It's not lost, because it can be used
for baking into a new dish.
And it both lends itself to sweet and savory cooking.
So I'm going to illustrate today a savory French toast,
a savory pain perdu.
For this recipe, you're going to need a pain de mie that
is a few days old.
You need to be able to cut through it to cut thick slices.
Tomatoes-- ideally, you have different sizes
to have the topping tomatoes being smaller
and the ones that are coming to the soaking sauce thicker.
You need a little bit of fresh herbs.
I used chives, but you can use whatever ones you have at hand.
You need eggs, of course, to revive
the bread, and some spices, so that the tomatoes are not
the only flavor in your profile.
The spices I'm using today are freshly ground black pepper
and curry.
Curry and tomatoes work well together and just
give it more personality.
The first step of this recipe is cutting the bread.
Remove the trimming from your bread.
Set it aside.
You can use it and turn it into breadcrumb.
And cut slices about two fingers thick to create
your pain perdu.
Don't make it too thin because it will soak in the eggs.
For the soaking sauce, I'm going to add tomatoes and spices
to the eggs.
I put them in a food processor or blender.
I use some curry.
You can adjust to your liking.
And especially if your tomatoes are a little bland,
you might want to add a little more.
Pinch or two of salt and some freshly-milled pepper.
What I like about the tomatoes is that it has a lot of water
to it, so it will really infuse color and flavor.
The idea here is to just have one liquid mass
to add to the eggs.
Breaking the eggs.
Whisk this together.
And instead of using milk, which would be the usual French toast
liquid, I'm going to put tomato and spice.
I just bring it together so that it's one mass.
The reason why I use tomatoes is because they
will revive any dry toast.
I'm going to soak the two slices of bread in it,
and I can leave it on the side for a couple of minutes
while I warm up my pan with a little bit of oil.
I use oil here more than butter because I don't
need to add some crust to it.
But you're fine using butter if you want to.
I'm just leaving the oil heat up and the toast to soak.
You can toss them over.
You can start preparing the topping.
This savory pain perdu is a little bit of a pan con tomate.
What's nice about cherry tomatoes or other colored
tomatoes is that you can have different textures,
different flavors.
I'm going to add a topping of chives.
I just add a little bit of olive oil to the top.
Just bring it together, coating the tomatoes.
And once that's done, add a little bit
of salt, wee bit of pepper.
And we're ready to roll.
The temperature on the stovetop is medium.
Just as you can see the oil is starting to fume,
you know that this is right.
And you can take your toasts at that point.
Now, here was where you want your full attention on the pan.
There's eggs that are baking and tomatoes.
We want to thoroughly cook the egg
and you don't want it to brown.
You can toss it on the side to check if it's OK, especially
because since this would not be a typical whiteish or milkyish
color, your visual cues will not be exactly the same
as a sweet French toast.
This bacon cheddar cheese-looking toast
is the right color for me.
And I'm only flipping it once, but if you want to flip it
multiple times, that's fine.
I have no religion when it comes to French toast.
I mean, I am doing a savory one, after all.
And I think my French toast is ready.
So as I'm bringing it out, it almost
feels like it's a breakfast omelet with some fresh tomatoes
and spice.
It has this almost brioche-y flavor to it,
because this bread has butter in it.
You have the egginess.
You have the tomatoes.
And it's not so much that you're smelling the tomatoes,
but the tomatoes combined with all the spices
that are bringing up the tomato flavors.
Using the tomatoes I've mixed with oil and spices.
Even if there's a few tomatoes on the side,
it's fine because you want to have some extra so
that you can eat every bite with a cherry tomato if you wish.
If you want to touch up the presentation,
you might add a little bit of chives.
Now, make sure that initial bite has
both the fresh tomato and the pain perdu that's
soaked into tomato sauce.
This is just right.
You have the warmth of the tomato sauce mixed
with the eggs, and then the freshness of the tomatoes
and chives.
Once you have tried a savory pain perdu,
I will take bets that you might not go back.
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