Smoked Gouda Swiss Chard Strata Food

SMOKED GOUDA & SWISS CHARD STRATA

Steps:

• In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp; drain on paper towels, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. Cook chard stems and onion in reserved drippings over medium heat until tender, about 4 minutes. Add chard leaves and red pepper; cook 2 minutes. Drain., Lightly grease a 13x9-in. baking dish. Layer with half the bread cubes, half the vegetable mixture and half the cheeses. Repeat layers., Mix remaining ingredients until well blended. Pour over layers; press down slightly. Sprinkle bacon over top. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight., Preheat oven to 325°. Remove strata from refrigerator while oven heats. Bake until puffy, lightly browned and set, about 1 hour.

SAUSAGE AND SWISS CHARD STRATA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Add sausage and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until browned, 5 minutes. Transfer sausage to a small bowl, leaving behind as much fat as possible. Add shallots and chard stems to skillet and cook over medium until shallots are translucent, 3 minutes. Add a little water to pan and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet with spoon. Add chard leaves and cook, stirring occasionally, until wilted, 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Spread half the sausage in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and top with half the chard mixture. Top with bread, overlapping slices slightly. Top with remaining sausage and chard mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together milk and eggs, season with salt and pepper, and pour evenly over top. Firmly press on strata to submerge bread in egg mixture. Cover dish tightly with foil and let sit 10 minutes (or refrigerate up to overnight).
• Bake strata 45 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese, and bake until cheese melts and egg mixture is mostly absorbed and set in center, 6 to 10 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

SMOKED GOUDA

Steps:

• Start 5 briquettes of charcoal on one side of a large barbecue and wait until they are white hot.
• Meanwhile, soak one handful apple wood chips in water.
• Fill an aluminum roasting pan with ice, and put on the other side of the grill.
• Put a piece of tinfoil over the ice, and lay the cheese on top of that so the cheese is slightly below the level of ice, making a boat with the tinfoil so that water cannot come inside.
• Drain the water from the wood chips.
• Add half of the wood chips, and put the lid on. Smoke for ten minutes, and then flip the cheese over and smoke for another ten minutes, adding more wood chips if necessary. Remove, and refrigerate immediately.
• Notes:.
• Though I have found apple wood to be the best for cheese, you can use other wood, but it should be a light smoking wood such as pecan, or maybe maple. Mesquite, and Hickory are definitely not recommended as the smoke is too intense for cheese.