Savory Bread Pudding with Asparagus, Gruyere and Fines Herbes

Happy New Years Eve!  As 2010 slowly winds down, I've decided to spend the last day of the year cooking and baking up a storm for a New Years Eve party tonight.  This should be a low-key evening filled with lots of bubbly, board games and laughter.  Everyone is bringing a dish or two and I decided to make a savory vegetarian bread pudding.  After doing some research, I found this fantastic recipe on Epicurious for Savory Bread Pudding with Asparagus, Gruyere and Fines Herbes from September 2002's Bon Appetit.

To start, I picked up all of the ingredients at Whole Foods on Thursday evening.  I laid out slices of an already-sliced loaf of French bread on two baking trays and stored them in the oven overnight.  This morning, the bread was nicely staled for the savory bread pudding.

This morning, I prepared the other ingredients, which included grating two cups of gruyere cheese and two cups of Swiss cheese.  I also added one cup of previously grated Parmesan cheese to this cheese mixture.

I then roughly chopped up 1/3 cup each of fresh chives, parsley and marjoram.  I added these herbs to the cheese mixture and set this bowl aside.

I then whisked up six large eggs, two cups of whole milk, two teaspoons salt and one teaspoon ground black pepper.  I also set this egg mixture aside.

I then put a pot of water on the stove to boil and generously salted the water.  While the water was heating up to a boil, I washed and cut one pound of asparagus in 1 1/2 inch lengths.  I also cut up the stale bread into 1 1/2 inch pieces.  When the water got to a boil, I placed the asparagus in a fryer basket and placed the basket in the water for about three minutes.

When the asparagus was cooked al dente, I removed the basket from the water and rinsed it quickly under cold water to cool and stop the cooking process.  I then got started on putting together the bread pudding.  I sprayed the inside of my Le Creuset Dutch oven with baking spray and first put down a layer of half of the stale bread.

I then sprinkled the bread with half of the asparagus.

I added half of the cheese mixture.

Finally, I poured half of the egg mixture over the bread, asparagus and cheese mixture.

I repeated this one more time with the remaining bread, asparagus, cheese and egg mixture.  This filled the Dutch oven all the way to the top! 

I let the bread pudding sit for about twenty-five minutes and I pressed the bread pieces down using my fingers.  The bread pudding compressed a few inches below the top of the Dutch oven by the time it was ready for baking.

I preheated the oven to 375 degrees and baked the bread pudding for about forty minutes until it was golden brown.

It is still cooling in my dining room as we speak and I can't wait to serve it tonight!  I can tell you that our place is filled with the unbelievable smell of baked cheese!

What are your plans for tonight to help ring in 2011?