sprinklefingers

Oh, Easter.

Mine flew by in a frenzy of seersucker pants and chocolate eggs. Add in brunch for eight prepared by moi (my French classes are really paying off), some sunshine and a few glasses of bubbly and you’ve got a pretty perfect day…if I do say so myself.

Brunch was delightful: We feasted on pain perdue (there’s that French again), bacon, a yogurt bar (complete with granola, fresh fruit, saucy figs and honey-preserved hazelnuts) and the most delicious asparagus you can imagine.

Here’s the recipe:

Roasted Asparagus with Meyer Lemon + Duck Eggs
serves 4-6
inspired by Sophie Dahl

you need:

• 6 duck eggs*, hard boiled (perfect instructions here)
• 20-24 stalks asparagus (about 2 bundles), washed with tough ends trimmed
• 1 large or 2 small meyer lemons, zested & juiced
• 4 T best quality olive oil, plus some for drizzling
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 cup finely grated parmigiano-reggiano
• truffle oil for finishing

make it:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Arrange the asparagus on a sheet tray in a single layer. Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
3. Roast the asparagus for 15 or so minutes or until blistery and browned in spots - take care to not overcook.
4. While the asparagus is roasting, whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice and olive oil then season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
5. Finely chop the eggs. A serrated knife will come in handy here.
6. Once the asparagus is roasted, the lemon/oil has been whisked together and the eggs have been chopped, plate your dish:
   Arrange the asparagus on your plate or platter then top with the parm. Next, drizzle the lemon/oil over top. Then scatter the chopped eggs all over and dot a precious few drops of truffle oil around the plate.
   If you’d rather plate individually, follow the same instructions only do it smaller and repeat it several times.

I ate so much asparagus yesterday. I literally could not stop eating this. The duck eggs were so perfect when eaten with the bright meyer lemon - then add in the saltiness of the parm…and the earthy flavor of the truffle oil. OH MY GOD, so SO good.

Add in some crusty baguette for soaking up the lemony goodness, and you’ve got one delicious dish on your hands.

With all the spring asparagus around, you really have no excuse but to make this!

*Yes, you could make this with chicken eggs, but the duck eggs really make this heavenly. You can procure duck eggs from your local farmer’s market or well stocked fancy foods shop.

you’d think by now i’d be used to it. but i’m not.
it happens every year, and still i’m never prepared.

what am i talking about, you may ask?

mother’s day AND my mother-in-law’s birthday usually always fall within just days of one another. it’s the mother of all double whammies.

of course i’m terribly behind in figuring out what to do for her, but i did just find this lovely piece on hollandaise sauce from the guardian. perhaps i can work poached eggs with this perfect sauce into our plans…

felicity cloake describes four (FOUR!) methods for hollandaise and then uses her favorite method in her tried & true recipe. thanks, felicity!

——-



read the rest of the piece here.

it’s an easter miracle. we went to church and my four year old (hopped up on jelly beans and the ears of a chocolate bunny) lasted the TWO HOUR service without having a complete freakout. i feel rather accomplished.

after the service we rushed home and i set about making brunch for a few close friends. on the menu: french toast, bacon, sausages, fruit salad and (hello!) mimosas. [as an appetizer we had about 45 chocolate easter eggs. apiece.]

generally when i have people ‘round for brunch i’ll plan a menu that’s as do-ahead friendly as possible. but not this time. i had two loaves of cinnamon bread in the freezer that were just screaming to be made into french toast, so i was determined to make it work - even if our lovely guests had to wait for me to griddle the toast.

delivering french toast to the table hot is made easier by an electric griddle. i’m not one for excessive amounts of kitchen equipment, but i would be lost without my electric griddle. i use it for breakfast (pancakes! french toast! bacon! eggs!), lunch (grilled cheese! quesadillas!) and dinner (veggie burgers!) - because it’s so much larger than a frying pan, an electric griddle allows you to, basically, griddle up the first round of french toast for the table and then (as you’re enjoying the first round with your guests) the second round can be frying up all golden brown. genius!

the other trick to getting this french toast on the table in a timely manner is that the bread is not soaked in the custard. while the custard is whipped together the night before, the bread is simply dipped in the custard before it goes on the hot (and buttery) griddle. really quite easy, even when cooking for a crowd.

orange & vanilla bean-infused french toast
serves 6 big eaters or 8 wimpy eaters

you need:

• 2 loaves cinnamon bread 
• 2 cups half & half
• 1 cup whole milk
• 9 eggs
• 6 T light brown sugar
• 3/4 t kosher salt
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped
• zest of one orange

to make the custard:

1. crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk to combine.
2. add the half & half, milk, brown sugar, salt, vanilla bean pod & seeds and the orange zest to the eggs whisking until frothy.
3. cover the custard bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. leaving the custard to sit overnight allows the flavors of the orange & vanilla to fully infuse the custard…the results are delicious.

make the french toast:

1. cut the ends off each loaf and then slice the loaves into slabs approximately 1 1/4 ” thick.  
2. heat the griddle to medium-high heat and add a few tablespoons of unsalted butter. 
3. pour the custard into a 9x13” pan and remove the vanilla bean pod. working with three slabs of bread at a time, plop the slabs into the custard and then press down lightly on them so that they’ll absorb some of the custard. flip the slices and press them down again. lift them out of the custard and wiggle them a bit to shake off the excess, then transfer them to the hot, buttered griddle.
4. repeat the soaking of slabs in custard and placing them on the griddle until your griddle is full.
5. cook the slabs until golden, approximately five minutes per side. 
6. repeat this process until your bread has all been dipped & griddled.

serve the french toast with butter and warm maple syrup. and maybe some bacon. and sausage. and probably some champagne and orange juice. and perhaps even a few chocolate eggs.

i love dorie greenspan. i also, as you know, have a deep affection for nick malgieri.

both write cookbooks i adore. and both have written very similar recipes. take for example the bacon & spinach tart/quiche that’s included in BOTH of their latest cookbooks. the recipes are so similar that one might think these two are sharing a brain. in fact, they’re so similar that the only major difference between them is the ratio of cream to eggs used and the inclusion (by nick) of nutmeg.

i, of course, set out to see which recipe we’d like the most…and it was a tie. so, i started making a version based heavily on dorie’s, but with the addition of nick’s nutmeg. makes a delicious bacony, spinachy tart that - with the right pastry - makes the perfect tasty treat for a big lunch or a light dinner.

without further ado, here’s the recipe:

spinach & bacon tart
based on recipes by both dorie greenspan and nick malgieri

the pastry:
as a vessel for your tart, you’re going to need a great pâte brisée. richer than your everyday pie crust, pâte brisée contains quite a bit of butter - and with the recipe i’m suggesting you use there’s also the inclusion of eggs and milk…the result is a rich, flaky extremely melty crust that’s honestly so good you could bake it as a cookie. if you wanted to take the deliciousness right over the edge, consider replacing 1/3 of the total butter in the recipe with frozen, cubed duck fat…a move that may well blow your taste buds and mind away (as it has done mine on several occasions. ah, the many splendors of duck.)

here’s a great recipe for pâte brisée - the method is quite easy with the most important step being that of fraisage which will ensure a flaky end result. you’ll basically only combine the ingredients in a food processor and then dump it out on your board and work the butter in by hand (that’s the fraisage bit.)

once you’ve made the pastry, you’ll want to give it a good rest in the fridge. 30 minutes at the bare minimum if you’re in a rush…a few hours if you have the luxury of time.

the good news: pâte brisée can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to a week. additionally, you can make a few batches and store them in your freezer for a tart emergency. because there’s so much butter in the mixture, the pastry rolls out fairly easily even after being refrigerated for days.

Read More

talking about breakfast for dinner made me think of this amazing ny times slideshow of good lookin’ breakfast items - complete with recipes!

rejoice! have dinner for breakfast tonight! and if you make this, please invite me over!

portlanders! best news ever! ned ludd will soon be serving brunch on weekends!

if you’ll excuse me i’m going to go start making brunch plans for saturday, november 6. who’s with me?



from the press release:
Brunch
We’re very excited to announce that we will start serving brunch on the weekends beginning Saturday November 6th from 10 am to 3 pm.  For those of you who have been enjoying our lunch menu, many of those items will be sticking around.  You can look forward to the addition of sweet and savory breakfast items, fresh orange juice mimosas, and our house made blood mary. Look for a sample menu on our facebook page next week.

…i’m 100% crazy for pumpkin butter.

last night i mixed it into waffles (breakfast for dinner!)
today i mixed it into my baked oatmeal.
tonight i’m enjoying it smeared on a thick slice of pumpkin bread.

it’s almost all i think about right now. [almost.] so i thought i’d share…

pumpkin butter waffles
makes 12 belgian waffles

you need:

• belgian waffle iron
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 t kosher salt
• 1 T sugar
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 2 t vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup whole milk
• 4 oz butter, melted
• 1/3 cup pumpkin butter (homemade or best quality)

to make the waffles:

1. preheat your waffle iron to a medium setting.
2. combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
3. combine the eggs, vanilla, milk, butter and pumpkin butter in a separate mixing bowl and whisk together completely.
4. add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix to combine thoroughly.
5. ladle 1/3 cup of the batter into each of the wells of your waffle iron.
6. cook for 5 minutes, then lift the lid to check the waffles. they should be crisp enough, but not burned (or even getting close to burning.)
7. keep waffles warm in a 200 degree oven while you use up the rest of the batter.

these waffles have the prettiest color. and they smell so good. and they taste even better.

serve with scrambled eggs seasoned with a few pinches of herbs de provence and thick-cut bacon. (at least this is how we like to serve them.) yum!

to make them even more delicious: heat 4 parts maple syrup to 1 part pumpkin butter in a small sauce pan. after buttering the waffles, pour this over top. swoon!

freezing leftover waffles: after your waffles have cooled completely, layer them gently in zip top freezer bags. find a flat place in the freezer and stow the bag there. once they are frozen solid they can be wedged in between all the other things you have shoved in your magical freezing device.

you can thaw/reheat the waffles either by toasting them in your toaster (no need to thaw first!) or by gently thawing/reheating them in a 300 degree oven for about 8 minutes.

no photo.
i’m sorry. i was so busy eating i forgot.

now that you know a bit more about me and my small-town-ohio past, i feel like i can say pretty much anything to you. which is good to know for future posts. but for now i’m simply going to expand on the baked oatmeal itself. some delicious variations and serving ideas follow:

1. for a cakey version of baked oatmeal, use instant oats instead of thick cut rolled oats. reduce the amount of milk to 1/2 cup. follow the rest of the recipe as written. this version finds the oats breaking down pretty much completely - resulting in an oatmeal that looks nothing like oats. instead it looks a bit like a difficult-to-pin-down crumbly baked good. delicious.
2. baked oatmeal is delicious served with baked or poached fruit and a bit of cream or even ice cream. it can go from breakfast to dessert if you serve it right…just think of it as a crumbly topping!
3. baked & cooled oatmeal is delicious with yogurt. add some preserved blueberries and you’ve got yourself a special treat indeed.
4. baked oatmeal is the ideal dish to adorn a brunch table. it’d be especially nice with a few bowls of add-ins along the side. here are some ideas for adornment:
   
   • sliced bananas
   • baked or sauteed apples
   • fresh blueberries or blackberries
   • raisins or dried cranberries
   • chocolate chips (!!!)
   • maple syrup
   • strawberry syrup
   • warm milk or (better yet!) half & half
   • vanilla yogurt
   
   
   what are you waiting for? you should be whipping up your own batch of baked oatmeal right this very second! yes!