Tuesday 18 June 2013

Parmesan custard and anchovy toast

I first heard of this dish when a tall, medical friend of mine was being very enthusiastic about eating it at Rowley Leigh's Le Cafe Anglais restaurant in London. I meant to look it up then, but never quite got round to it, so it was quite handy when the recipe appeared in last month's Waitrose magazine. Further investigation has revealed that it's actually all over the internet, such as here. The Waitrose recipe goes for the anchovy butter simply spread on toast, rather than made into little toasted sandwiches, but apart from that it's identical.

This recipe was surprisingly easy to make, although it took way longer to cook than the 15 minutes stated. More like 45 minutes I'd say. I have to say that after the waiting around and tentative bain marie shaking, I was a little disappointed that the Parmesan custard wasn't a bit more cheesy. However on reflection, the contrast between the salty, fishy toast and the creamy custard, was very acceptable and more Parmesan would probably have been overwhelming (I am still tempted to make it again with more cheese though). Anyway, I really liked this recipe and particularly the toast part and will definitely be cooking it again in the near future (possibly with extra cheese).