New Orleans Food Questions And Comments

Caviar on Savory Lost Breads

The most challenging dinners I cook all year are the ones I serve in the homes of people who bought my services at charity auctions. I'm flattered that they attract bids as high as they do, but a little embarrassed, too. I'm never quite sure that what I will cook will be worth what the people paid for it. So I get a bit extreme. For years, until Beluga caviar became endangered, I started these dinners with an appetizer of that rare, wonderful stuff, served over a traditional New Orleans lost bread, but made without the sweet elements (sugar and vanilla), and with a little onion in the custard. But you can use any kind of good caviar to make this convincing.

Small French baguette, cut into round slices about 3/4 inch thick
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Pinch nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch white pepper
2 Tbs. pureed white onion
Vegetable oil for frying
Sour cream
2 Tbs. finely chopped chives
4 oz. caviar

1. Blend the eggs, milk, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and pureed onions in a wide bowl. Soak the bread rounds until they're wet with the custard mixture all the way through, but not falling apart.

2. Heat about a quarter-inch of the oil in a skillet until it shimmers at the surface. Fry the bread rounds until they are quite a dark brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on a paper towel and keep warm.

3. Spread a little sour cream on each bread round. Sprinkle with chives, and top with a generous spoonful of caviar.

Serves eight.

Revised 3/29/08


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