What to do with Stale Bread

By Gourmed
20 Ιουνίου, 2011

If you are stuck with stale bread, scroll down and try some of these ideas (or rather, these traditional Greek recipes) instead of throwing it out…

Slightly toast it for breakfast in the toaster or in the oven
Make the bread into croutons; cut it into small cubes, fry the pieces, and use them in salads.
If you don’t want to fry them, then roast them in the oven until totally dry.
Use the croutons for your soups as well as your salads
Boil the bones from beef or chicken with a carrot, an onion, some celery, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Strain the mixture; place plenty of croutons in a bowl and pour the juice on top. Serve with chopped parsley and add to every dish a spoonful of yogurt combined with grated garlic or a tablespoon of cream milk. This soup with its plethora of variations is a popular delicacy in Pontus but also in France, Germany and the Iberian Peninsula.
Soak the bread in water, strain it, and then use it for meatballs.
Make it into skordalia (garlic sauce), especially the dark bread.
Use the bread for chicken stuffing, as follows: After cutting off the crust, soak the bread in wine, combine grated onion to the mixture, plenty of parsley and dill as well, a beaten egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper and the liver from the chicken slightly sautéed. Wash the chicken well then stuff it with the mixture and sow it with a cotton thread. Bake it in the oven as usual.
Prepare what the Macedonians call “avgofetes” and the people from Pontus call “felotiganon.” Cut the bread into thin slices and dip them into beaten eggs then fry. Sprinkle on the slices some sugar and cinnamon and serve them warm. Sounds pretty similar to French toast, doesn’t it?
Make garlic bread. Cut the bread into thin slices. Combine the slices in a bowl with some olive oil and mashed garlic (as much as you like), and then smear the mixture on the bread slices. Reassemble the slices and wrap the bread in aluminum foil tightly, then place it in the oven until warm.
Spread in a small buttered Pyrex sliced bread without the crust and dipped into milk. Fill in a combination of cheeses (usually from leftovers) plenty of mushrooms and onions that have been previously sautéed. Cover with other slices of bread also dipped in milk and sprinkle 1 or 2 tablespoons of butter. Bake until slightly brown and serve warm with strong dry red wine.
Make “ladopsycha,” in following a very simple recipe from Pontus, and try it out in small quantities with whole baked potatoes. Dice the stale bread and fry it with a bit of oil. Pour tomato sauce on top and let it simmer, then sprinkle plenty of chopped parsley. This recipe could be used as garnish to roasted meats, instead of potatoes or French fries.
Prepare the famous “throumoulia” from Pontus. Fry the diced stale bread and add a beaten egg. Stir until the egg is done, add a pinch of salt and pepper, then sprinkle with plenty of parsley and serve warm.
Rub the sliced stale bread with garlic and chop it into small pieces, spread on a tray and leave them to dry up completely. Place some of the pieces in a bowl and then add the chopped tomato salad.
Make “psomomakaronia,” a specialty from Rhodes. Place the dry pieces of the bread in salted boiling water. Leave it for two to three minutes until the breadcrumbs swell, and then drain them. Place them on a platter and pour plenty of grated sheep cheese on top. Fry the olive oil and pour it all over the mixture.