Bread Sauce

Originally based mainly on the BBC's recipe:

1 litre milk
2 medium to large onions
200g breadcrumbs
4 bay leaves
10 cloves
12 peppercorns
2 whole cloves of garlic
A small pinch of dried thyme
A pinch of salt.
50 g butter.

(The main changes are that I use half the butter, half the garlic, less thyme, more bay and wholemeal, not white, bread).

Simmer everything except the bread for 30 minutes+ (until the onion is soft).

Strain into a pan - make sure you squeeze the onion debris to extract the juices.  When the milk is at least warm, add the breadcrumbs and stir until they swell.  I found this took 5 to 10 minutes.  (It will continue to thicken as it cools).  Finally adjust the seasoning ( I found it needed more pepper).

I also used my rather tangy wholemeal sourdough for breadcrumbs,  They were good for flavour but changed the appearance.  Also, they curdled the milk (I had left it out overnight, so there was that as well), so next time I may stabilise the milk with a little cornflour before adding the breadcrumbs.

The flavour was good but the bread was rather overwhelmed.  The BBC specified ordinary white, but if you use well flavoured bread for the sauce I think it could be less elaborate.

Cranberry Sauce

1 Packet Cranberries (250 g)
2 Cloves
Zest 1.5 Oranges
A few dessertspoons of my wine vinegar (this is soured wine, so much weaker than shop vinegar)
Black pepper and brown sugar to taste.
Water as required.

Put the ingredients in a pan and heat them up until the cranberries start to collapse. Let it cool, and then heat it again if you want it mushier.

I didn't use the orange juice as I ate the oranges; also I only put the zest from one orange in the first time I heated it - the second orange was lunch for the next meal and I heated it through then.

Check seasoning, acidity and sugar when finally cool.