Saturday brunch : 3 recipes

Brunch in North America seems to be one of the most popular social eating occasions. As well as taking your mum for brunch on mother's day and possibly dad too, on his own day of appreciation, brunch is usually enjoyed on the weekends when a more leisurely approach to eating breakfast is adopted later in the day after your well deserved 'lie in'. For the uninitiated bruncher, in many restaurants this meal is served between 11am and 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays and features recipes that predominantly utilise the mighty and versatile egg. You might see a delicate crepe or omelet served with artisan cheese and mushrooms, or a fritatta in many different guises. Eggs Benedict, (a Canadian favourite) feature highly, the poached egg sitting atop a toasted English muffin and blanketed in the smoothest Hollandaise sauce, maybe some sweet Dungeness crab or bacon adding a little extra variation.

As expats, it's easy to adopt the customs that we like here and slightly adapt them to our own. When we make brunch, it's usually a hybrid affair comprising a little Canadian spirit and a little of the faithful ole' full British breakfast. We awoke on Saturday bright eyed and optimistic, looking forward to a sunny day free of open houses and purchase negotiations and decided to make a full on brunch. Two types of sausages, (pork and leek and Gloucester), some local back bacon, eggs baked with cheddar and a hash of potatoes, chorizo sausage, bell pepper, broccoli and spinach. The next day, we repeated the sentiment with a frittata with a Mexican twist: full of onion, spinach and bacon, topped with an incredibly salty Mexican cheese; Cotija.

Recipe : Potato hash with broccoli, bell pepper and chorizo

1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter

1/2 onion, peeled and finely sliced

1/2 bell pepper, seeded and finely sliced

1/4 chorizo sausage, sliced thinly

4 broccoli stalks, thinly sliced

a handful of spinach

10 baby potatoes, halved and boiled or microwaved in water until soft

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped finely

salt and pepper

1 tsp chili powder

Heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large frying pan and add the onion, bell pepper, chorizo and broccoli. Stir fry together for a few moments, decrease the heat to low - medium and saute, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are softened and the chorizo fairly crispy. 

Add the spinach, rosemary and potatoes and increase the heat again to allow the potatoes to fry and crisp at the edges, (this may take a good 10 minutes of allowing the potatoes to sit in the pan undisturbed before turning and crisping the other sides). Season with the salt, pepper and chili powder, stir well and serve.

Recipe: Baked eggs with cheddar cheese

A very simple recipe but one that really put a smile on my face

4 organic, free range eggs

1 tsp butter

salt and black pepper

2 tbsp grated strong cheese, such as Cheddar or Gruyere

 

You need two ramekins or other oven proof dishes to make these eggs. 

Grease the two ramekins with half of the butter in each, ensuring you grease the sides and bottoms well.

Break two eggs into each and season quite liberally with salt and pepper. 

Top with the cheese, using 1 tbsp for each, and bake in a 375oF oven for about 25 minutes which will give you hard yolks. Of course, if you prefer your eggs on the runny side, cook for less time and check by inserting a fork or skewer into the yolks.

The eggs should easily slide free from the ramekins, giving you a sophisticated McDonald type egg cake. use up to 6 eggs if you like, depending on how hungry you are and how big your ramekin is. You could even make one large egg cake with 12 eggs in a souffle dish, adding whatever other ingredients you like. Everything should stick together well enough because of the whites. 
It seems my idea wasn't so ingenious after all. According to this link from the BBC website, my technique was simply 'baked eggs'. There's some other good ideas too. 

 

Recipe : Frittata with Cotija cheese

1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp butter

4 pieces of lean back bacon, fat removed

1/2 onion, peeled and finely sliced

1 small chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1/2 bell pepper, seeded and finely sliced

a handful of spinach

salt and pepper

4 eggs, beaten

1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped finely or 1 tsp dried

a handful of Cotija cheese, crumbled

Heat the oil and butter in a pan over medium heat and add the bacon, chili pepper, onion and bell pepper. Stir together and saute until softened. Add the spinach, season well (less so if your bacon is very salty) and fry until the spinach is wilted.

Spread the vegetables evenly in the pan, creating a single layer that covers the whole pan and pour in the eggs, taking care to cover all areas and ensuring that the eggs reach all sides. Sprinkle over the oregano and cheese and let the frittata cook over low - medium heat for about 5 minutes until the bottom is well cooked. 

Preheat the grill (broiler) and place the frittata underneath to cook the top, which should become slightly fluffy and browned with the cheese slightly melted. Remove from the grill, slide onto a plate and cut into slices or roll up half in a tortilla with some salsa and sour cream, like we did.