Table Travellers – Week 4

Pain Perdu (French toast or even Lost bread!)

This is a bit of a cheats post in that we did not do the cooking on the day of the blog upload… and I used a number of cheat’s measures to achieve the dish  itself. One day very soon I hope to repeat the experiment.

So on this amazing experience we had last year with a troupe of our family getting about in Paris – not somewhere I ever dreamed I’d be but where I’d return in an instant now I’ve seen what the fuss is all about – we found ourselves in a little cafe just down the way from the Montmatre Sacré-Cœur basilica where our eldest daughter Lauren, and her husband Justin, took us to their “favourite restaurant in the whole world”. The “Hardware Société Paris” was a super funky little cafe on the side of a hill – the second of two such cafes  by an Australian couple whose first cafe is in Melbourne. It did amuse me to  find lamingtons among the other cakes at the counter but thought it a rather wonderful homey tribute to see them sitting proudly there.

The menu selection was superb – but I was a gonner as soon as I saw French toast. Especially when I read how it was served. The first photo below is the plate I ordered, the images that follow show the cheats version of it that I made for breakfast dessert last Christmas morning 🙂 It wasn’t in the same league as the original – but it was still pretty amazing. I’d have put more effort into the presentation if I’d known ahead of time that I’d be blogging about it but at this point on Christmas day I just wanted to sit back down!

INSPIRATION: “Pain Perdu: passion fruit French toast with bavarois passion ruit, chocolate mascarpone, passion fruit pulp, and fresh raspberries.” There were several other varieties and options so you can basically make it up. 🙂

IMITATION: Theirs was made with brioche – I made ours with a good sour dough. Sliced about 2 cm thick and soaked in 2 eggs: 1 cup milk with vanilla to taste. Get the pan nice and hot and use a generous amount of butter to fry. Have your toppings ready BEFORE starting to cook the toast. I used vanilla Fruche, an instant mix chocolate mousse, sliced strawberries and a good maple syrup. But truly – your imagination is the only limit!

This dish was a raving hit in our house… Loonie and Justo (our current Londoners) are here for a visit next week… they will be here by the time this will auot post. We are a bit (lot) excited and I’m as sure as sure can be that Hardware Societe style Pain Perdu will be on our menu again.

Devorer!

Heather

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