Posts tagged #brunch

Lekker: Brunch-y Sweet Potato Hash

After my wild bumper crop of gigantic sweet potatoes from our back garden, combined with a spur-of-the-moment visit into town by one of my cousins this past weekend, I knew it was the perfect occasion for my favourite fall brunch dish: Sweet Potato Hash. This is perfect for the morning after Thanksgiving and makes such lovely use of seasonal produce. It can even be made up to two days in advance of when you plan to serve it, hence being perfect for Thanksgiving-morning-after: just reheat it in the oven at 400 for about 15 minutes until warm. With a fried egg on top it's a complete meal, filling and delicious.

Give it a whirl this Sunday, and gents--this is a surefire way to absolutely, unequivocally impress your lady friend the morning after. Don't say I never did anything for you.

My egg is not pretty here. I was being time-constructive and cooking several in a pan at once, hence the unattractive cut lines. But, an egg is still an egg and when you burst the yolk of this over-easy beauty it creates a lovely sauce to meld with the hash underneath.


Brunch-y Sweet Potato Hash
serves 4

What You Need
2 tablespoons butter
1 large or two medium onions, peeled and sliced into half-moons
about 1/2 pound (or 4 links) Italian sausage; I like to use HOT but you could use mild too
2 large or 3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into bite-sized pieces
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
Olive oil, about 2-3 tablespoons
salt & pepper, to taste

Large eggs, to serve--and some fresh grated Parmesan cheese, if you really wanna go all out (And come on, you're making all this effort, right? May as well.)

What You Do
1. Preheat the oven to 450. In a large saucepan or skillet, heat the butter until it melts and add your chopped onions. Cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes until they're well browned and nicely caramelised. It'll probably take about that long for your oven to heat up, plus you can be peeling and dicing the sweet potato and garlic at this time too.

2. Squeeze the sausage out of its natural casings onto a separate plate and break it up a bit with your fingers. Toss that into the skillet with the onions and cook over medium heat until it's well browned and cooked through, breaking up with a wooden spoon until it's all nicely crumbled.

3. In a large bowl, toss your diced sweet potato, dried rosemary, and fresh minced garlic with the olive oil until well coated and seasoned to your liking. Line a large baking sheet with foil.

4. So, your onions are now caramelised and brown and delicious smelling and the sausage has cooked through. Excellent. Toss that goodness into the bowl with the sweet potatoes and stir up nicely with a big wooden spoon. Spread out onto the baking sheet in one even layer, and pop into the oven.

5. Pour yourself a mimosa and enjoy your lovely brunch company for the next 20-30 minutes or until the sweet potatoes have roasted through. You'll know when you stick a piece with your fork and it goes through tenderly. I like to dice my sweet potatoes pretty small because they'll roast faster.

Just before the hash is finished roasting, you have the option to cook up some eggs to serve on top. Everyone in my little group wanted something different, so I told them all to shut up and they all got over easy. Everyone can make their peace with over easy! :)

Cheers to enjoying a beautiful weekend morning with beloved friends.

Original recipe found here, but I find the instructions a bit time-consuming for my impatient self (and really hate fresh rosemary) so this is my version.
Posted on November 13, 2013 .

Lekker: Hollandaise Sauce

It's Saturday morning, a beautiful, crisp, fall Saturday morning and I am NOT hungover today! Woo hoo! That means I could get up and mosey on down to the kitchen to whip up this breakfast of Eggs Florentine, giving me the opportunity to make some Hollandaise sauce from scratch.

We've already established how nuts I am for good sauces. They should be their own food group, and when you combine my favourite meal (breakfast) with my favourite thing (sauce---a BUTTER SAUCE) and my favourite drink (boozy breakfast drinks of course) you KNOW it's gonna be a great day. :)

Hollandaise is a very basic egg yolk and butter sauce, rich and thick and utterly creamy and decadent. You've had it on Eggs Benedict before, though it's delicious over vegetables like grilled asparagus (green, or if you want to be traditionally German, white) as well. Don't be intimidated if you've never made it before, just work slowly and one step at a time to avoid making the sauce "break" or letting the yolks scramble. I promise, it's worth the effort and truly only takes 10-15 minutes to whip up.

Thank god for weekends.

Hollandaise Sauce 
yields about 1 cup

What You Need
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed if you have it but I just used bottled
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
pinch of cayenne or chili powder

You'll need to create a "double-boiler" set up to make this sauce. The simplest method is to find a stainless steel bowl that will fit on top of a smaller pot so that water can steam underneath it without touching the bottom of the upper bowl. 

What You Do
1. Set a small pot of water on the stove and bring it to a gentle simmer. In a medium sized stainless steel bowl, whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together until the mixture is thick and light yellow in color. Meanwhile, melt the butter in the microwave in a separate dish.

2. Place the mixing bowl on top of the pot of simmering water, whisking constantly. Drizzle the butter into the bowl in a thin stream until fully incorporated. The sauce will get thinner at this stage and you will need to make sure you are whisking CONSTANTLY (and keeping the water in the pot at a bare simmer) to avoid letting the yolks scramble. Keep whisking until the sauce thickens, only about a minute or two.

3. Remove from the heat and add the salt and cayenne pepper. Now, at this stage I found that it had gotten too thick for my liking, so I whisked in 1/2 tablespoon of warm water to thin it out.

I had this drizzled over two poached eggs, sitting on top of two pieces of wheat toast and some wilted baby spinach. It was, in a word, divine.
Posted on October 26, 2013 .

Liquor: Pimm's Cup

I love brunch, and I love day drinking, so it should be a surprise to no one that I love morning cocktails. There's just something about a light drink in the lazy morning that is the epitome of complete weekend indulgence and relaxation. I've been warned that I will find myself swept up in the melee of soccermomhood before I know it (SCARY!) so I'm making a good effort to enjoy this kind of life while I can.

Mimosas will always be my favourite and the go-to classic for most places, although my dear friend and often brunch partner Lilypad always goes for the gold with a Bloody Mary. This cocktail, though, is a wonderful alternative that many Americans aren't aware of: the Pimm's Cup. It's actually a very old cocktail that was historically enjoyed by the colonists (in fact I first discovered it on a fall trip to Colonial Williamsburg a few years ago) and by their erstwhile compatriots back in Britain for eons before that. The sweet, utterly refreshing taste is the perfect way to wake up on a beautiful lazy Sunday, but in fact you can drink it at any time of day, really, since the alcohol content is only 25%. Hell, you can throw it in a tumbler and call it iced tea if you want--don't let those other soccer moms judge you!

Pimm's Cup
makes 1 bomb-ass wake up cocktail. Sunflowers optional.

What You Need
Pimm's liqueur
Sprite or 7-Up
Sliced cucumber, for garnish (this is NOT optional!!!)

What You Do
Stack a tall glass with ice, and fill with Pimm's about a third of the way. Top off with Sprite or 7-Up, add a cucumber slice or two and one on the rim for garnish, and you're golden.

Seriously, the cucumber slice is not optional. The point of including one on the rim is so that every time you tip the glass up to take a sip, your nose takes a whiff of the cuke as an accompaniment to the flavours of the liqueur. There is science behind garnishes, people!
Posted on August 27, 2013 .