Panade (New York Times)

I will on occasion do dishes I come across while reading the NYT Sunday Magazine (Asado Negro, Bulgogi Sloppy Joe's, I bought Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi sort of because Mark Bittman told me to). I bookmarked Panade way back in September 2010 and came across it again a month or two ago. At the time I revisited the dish, I wasn't really in the mood for the richness it suggested, but things have changed and I still found the dish thrilling.

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2 leeks, white parts only, finely chopped (about 1½ cups)
• 6 cups whole milk
• Salt
• 4-6 slices day-old country bread, each 1 inch thick [Later I kind of assumed they must have meant some sort of artisinal white bread instead of straight-supermarket country-style, sliced white bread.]
  
• 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound), peeled, seeded and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
• 1 bunch black kale or Swiss chard, center stems removed [Grabbed some red kale instead at Symphony's Whole Foods.]
  
• 1 head cauliflower (about 1½ pounds), trimmed and cut into ½-inch-thick slices
• ½ pound fontina cheese, thinly sliced [Did the best I could using the widest setting on my mandoline. I wasn't about to put any more effort into this, thanks.]
  
• Heavy cream, optional.

Breaking out my Cuisinart Multi-Clad 8 Quart Stockpot. At about $210, it's a way better deal than the jaw-droppingly expensive yet cult-worthy All-Clad set which will set you back a cool $1,175.25. Less straight forward when it comes to cleaning it than normal pots and pans so I usually only break it out when I know I have to shove one in the oven.
Also starring my trusty chef's knife and my mandoline makes its first appearance on my blog.


My mountainous mise-en-place.


A layer of bread, the squash layer, and two cups of milk mixture (butter, milk, leeks, salt) pour over. The last of these smells amazing.


More bread, kale, cauliflower, and the rest of the milk mixture. Sure, the recipe doesn't call for freshly ground black pepper, but it's probably the spice I use most often. I love it, and if it seemed out of place here (Shouldn't I have some idea by now?) , I wouldn't have dared.


What it looks like in the pan. A bit moister than I thought but this can be attributed to pouring a full half-gallon of milk into the saucepan rather than noting that it called for 2 cups less. I didn't want to brown the cheese anymore.


Probably won't make this again (I'll be eating it for the next few days anyway), but it was good and rich and complex and had a nice assortment of veggies. I don't make most things more than once; it wasn't a outright failure and it smelled pretty damn good at various points.