🍰 BUSH'S FAIRYBREAD PUDDING
a little treatie for u?
Good evening frogs and frogettes,
Welcome to Wednesday evening! Is it weird that this is the only time it will ever be 8pm on May 26th 2021? This will never happen again.
And so to celebrate, tonight’s Top Hat Tips are gonna go a little differently. A little celebrationy. A little… Fairybread & Butter Puddingy.
(pic by Kitty Gould)
Fairybread & Butter Pudding is a food invented by Sydney restaurant, Bush.
I first heard about Bush’s wobbly pud in an article on Concrete Playground. I read the headline – ‘Bush Is Redfern's New Australiana-Inspired Restaurant with Fairy Bread Pud and Kangaroo Pies’ – and before I could manage the words “yes cuuuuun”, an akubra was on my head and that picture was ‘saved’.
It wasn’t until two years later, on my 26th birthday back in March, that I finally found my way to 55 George St, Redfern in search of a bday cheeseburger and slab o’ pudwah.
My expectations were high! I’d been eyeing off their rotating menu for months. Just one look at the Saussie Roll, Crinkle-Cut Chips or Wattleseed Damper with Whipped Honey Butter had me salivating like Poochie incarnate.
And given my track record of birthday bonanzas (18th at Hogs Breath Cafe u up?) I was ready for this to be a meal to remember.
And it was just that.
From the minute you walk into Bush, you feel at home. It’s deeply unpretentious. The interiors are (deliberately, I think) bare bones and there’s a courtyard out back with a big, happy, scribbly wall.
The service is much the same too. The guys (Grant and Pat) are low key, laid back. They remind me of that person in school who would be super chill and then hit you with a fucked up ATAR score. They know their stuff but they aren’t throwing it in your face and making you feel like an uncultured goober.
I just had a bloody good time.
I promise I’ll get to the recipe, but first I wanted to ask Grant a couple questions about Bush. (I’m fascinated because they sit in FW’s favourite intersection – they make a world-class product that’s as accessible to the everyday man right through to the She-E-O.)
WHO
F: Who are you?
P: I'm Grant, and that’s Pat (below). We’re both Sydney born and raised, with influences from Queensland and Tasmania. Neither of us are chefs, however we can work as chefs. In reality, Pat sings like no other and I’m excellent at putting an edge on a lawn with a whip. We have a small team of 6.
WHAT
F: What is Bush?
P: Bush is a concept where we revere the bush, try to shine a light on it and help it in different ways. It's manifested itself in the form of a restaurant here in Redfern. We have been cooking all sorts of food, however very recently we decided to focus on native and invasive food. Native ingredients so that we consume more, increasing its accessibility and viability. Invasive so that we are consuming harmful elements in the bush. A simple and probably naive plan to help the Bush spread.
BURGER
F: Your cheeseburger was sexual and many travelled far and wide to kiss it with their lips. When I did a poll asking my employees what recipe they wanted, there was only 100 or so votes between this and the fairybread. Why did u get rid of it?
P: For this location the cheeseburger is gone, however we will cook it again for the people though. We got rid of it because we needed to go back to the core beliefs of the brand. We did source the best beef we could find, from Feather and Bone in Marrickville. They are very bush friendly. We will be bringing out another burger in the near future though. A Buffalo burger. Problem in the N.T. Getting all cowboy on it.
AUSTRALIAN
F: Who is your favourite Australian?
P: That is a tough question. Shane obviously springs to mind. Maggie Beer is a boss, almost takes the cake. Final answer, Marie Byles. Avid bushwalker, conservationist, Australia’s first woman solicitor and advocate for woman’s success. I’ve benefited from her work greatly. So have the powerful owls and a whole multitude of other lives.
EAT
F: When you're eating elsewhere, where do u go?
P: B.C.D Tofu House in Epping exclusively.
FAIRYBREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING
F: How did you come up with this recipe?
P: It was one of those recipes that just came together like ice magic. Pat is the master of it. It’s off our menu now however I will make a big wibbly wobbly slab of it on request.
F: Ok let’s get freakin to it!!
Fairy Bread and Butter Pudding
Serves 16 (Obviously half it if necessary)
Ingredients:
1 ltr Good milk
1 ltr Cream
7 eggs
Fair whack of vanilla
A smattering of white sugar, 1/4 cup maybe. Go light.
1 loaf wonder white.
600 g softened butter or so.
Dollar sweets hundreds and thousands. Only one of Coles or Woolies sells them. I think it’s Woolies.
Note* recipes are just a starting point.
Get an oven dish, we use a 1/2 gastronorm. (You will have to adapt if using a different sized tray). Butter that bish up.
Get a loaf of Wonder White. Only the best.
Make fairy bread with 12 slices, just butter 6. *Sprinkle 100s n 1000s relatively lightly.
Delicately stack the fairy bread, leaving the buttered boys for the top layer. Slightly overlap so you create spaces between the slices. We spiral up, if that makes sense. 3 layers of 6 slices.
Combine milk and cream, heat till it’s hottish. Bit of steam is all g, boil no go.
Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla till well incorporated and a bit bubbly
Pour hot milk and cream into egg mixture. Starting with a small small to temper the eggs, avoiding scrambling. Whisk it good.
Pour milk, cream, egg mix over the slices in the baking dish. Make sure all slices are soaked, spatulating the top surface helps. Then 100 n 1000 the top layer liberally.
Forget to pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Bang her in. She’ll rise quite drastically hopefully. Take out when golden on top and wibbly wobbly.
Cut and serve with vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on top of that.
Shid your pants
Repeat
Wow. U had me at Shid your pants.
So that is it for tonight’s newsletter. I’ve got plans tonight (bad bitch) but I will definitely be making this sensual little elfin dessert in the not-to-distant future. Report back then.
If you have suggestions for upcoming THTs, boxpunch me at froomesworld@gmail.com.
P.S. I just carpal-tunneled all the way back on Bush’s Instagram and look what I’ve found:
That’s fate. F x