Bread and butter broth, yeast bubbles
- medium
- 10
- 60 minutes plus overnight soaking
Pam Brunton infuses stale wholegrain sourdough overnight in water to make the base of her bread broth dish. The soaking liquor is then reduced to intensify flavours of malt. Yeast bubbles are made by roasting fresh and nutritional yeasts before blending with milk to create a foam. At her restaurant Inver, Pam makes miso out of bread which she uses to add complex notes of toast, nuts and savouriness. Serve this at the start of a meal to wake up the palette and feel connected to one of the most ancient food processes – the cultivation of wheat and the artisanal practices of sourdough bread-making.
Pam says: “This dish is all about using the leftover bread we create at Inver. Like many restaurant kitchens, we produce a lot of bread ends and scraps, so it is hard to quantify exactly how much bread should be used here – it will vary according to what you have and its condition. I ask you to respond to the state of the bread in front of you – how much do you have? How dry is it? And how does it taste once it is soaked and the broth reduced? Then you can determine how many portions to make.”
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 1.5kg stale sourdough, ideally a flavourful wholegrain (see note above)
- chicken stock, as needed
- 25g of nutritional yeast
- 50g of fresh yeast
- 300g of whole milk
- 25g of bread miso, or barley miso (optional)
- 50g of brown butter, melted
Method
The day before, prepare the sourdough bread for the bread broth. Tear the bread into small pieces and soak them overnight in just enough water to cover them – put a plate on top to keep the bread submerged under the water
- 1.5kg stale sourdough, ideally a flavourful wholegrain (see note above)
The next day, decant the bread mixture into a colander set over a bowl and squeeze the bread to extract as much liquid as possible. Strain the collected liquid through a fine sieve into a wide pan and reduce by at least half, or until the broth is viscous, densely malty, salty and sweet – it should be more concentrated than you would like to sip as it is, and be slightly viscous
Add about the same amount of chicken stock. Taste and if it’s still too salty add a little more stock – the balance of flavours should be more in favour of bread, with the chicken broth reducing the salt content and providing body and balance. Set aside
- chicken stock, as needed
For the yeast bubbles, preheat the oven to 180°C. Toast the nutritional yeast on a baking sheet in the oven for about 12-15 minutes until golden, mixing regularly. Remove and reduce the temperature to 160°C
- 25g of nutritional yeast
Place the fresh yeast on a nonstick mat or baking sheet lined with baking paper. Roast it until it becomes an appealing dark golden brown and is completely dry – 35-40 minutes – then leave to cool completely. Blitz to a crumb, then weigh out 30g
- 50g of fresh yeast
Put the milk, 30g roasted yeast crumbs, nutritional yeast and bread miso, if using, in a pan and bring to a simmer. Immediately turn off the heat and blitz with a handheld stick blender. Strain into a clean pan
- 300g of whole milk
- 25g of bread miso, or barley miso (optional)
To serve, place a teaspoon of melted brown butter in the bottom of each serving cup. Warm the broth and add around 60-70g to each. Using the handheld stick blender, foam the yeast bubbles again, scoop only the froth off the top off the pan with a spoon and add to the cup of broth
- 50g of brown butter, melted
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