The next Saturday is upon us. We have also decided to be realistic and stick to weekends as we were way too exhausted to do that during the week again. I have decided that I need a more definitive role in this joint venture other than chief pleb and narrator. So I put myself in charge of drinks. The primary reason being that Di and I spent the long weekend drinking in Cape Town and bought a ton of wine. So we have to palm it off to people some how. I am pretty sure that Mariette will enjoy the different wineries we discovered. Lastly Mariette insists on forgetting to buy my Coke Light, so I best cater for this myself - sniff sniff.We have also decided that we will alternate inviting guests. This way it’s not just the usual suspects, but we get to meet each other’s friends. Most importantly we get more feedback. This week’s guinea pigs will be Danni and Marie Louise. They are 2 of Di’s hockey friends, proof that straight attractive girls do play hockey after school.
In keeping with autumn we are letting nature be our guide. Cosmos will be the order of the day, thereby dictating the colour scheme. So it’s going to be a pink brunch in honour of the girls.
This week we are doing a brunch. Now, my first thought was bacon, egg and sausage. Apparently this is brunch not breakfast and the closest I got was an egg and bacon quiche. We had to keep the brunch fairly light because the hockey girls play their first game of the season and need to be able to kick butt after brunch and not roll over and nap.
From the sounds of the menu we will be doing a lot of baking, which is quite great for me as my father was a baker and we used to bake a lot when I was younger. So this will be a nice trip down memory lane for me. I am rather excited about baking bread, muffins, scones etc. but not overly thrilled by the thought of yoghurt and muesli. But who really cares, I have enough baked goods to keep me happy. I do confess, I was clinging to the hope that with it being brunch I was getting away from veggies for one meal, but no such luck, I see that the greens are upon me, very poorly disguised as avo and asparagus.
Brunch with the girls
(6-8 people)
Menu
Toasted Muesli
Vanilla Yoghurt / Milk
Fruit Platter
Quiche Lorraine
Potato and Salmon Pancakes
Meat Platter
Cheese Platter
Avocado and Asparagus on Rocket
Muffins
Scones
Miniature Loaves of Bread
Black Cherry Jam / Apricot Jam / Raspberry Jam / Honey
Orange / Apple / Berry Juice
Brut Rose Methode Cap Classique (Jeff Grier)
Pongraz
Solms Lekkerwijn Rose
Tea / Coffee
Shopping list:
Fruit and Vegetables:
1 Packet frozen berries
2 Avocado pears
1 Punnet Rocket
1kg Potatoes for mashing
250 – 300g Asparagus
Chives
Spring onion
1 Big bunch red grapes
1 Big bunch green grapes
1 Pineapple
1 Sweet Melon
3 Granadillas
4 Plums
Lemon
Meat and Fish:
6 Bacon rashers
Smoked salmon
Variety cold meats (gypsy ham, salami, beef pastrami)
Dairy and eggs:
Yoghurt (Vanilla, Black cherry 100 – 150ml per person)
250ml Double cream
250ml Sour cream
2 dozen Eggs
Variety cheeses (Gouda, Emmenthal, Brie, Boland Blue)
120g Mature Cheddar / Gruyere
Other Groceries:
200g Blanched almonds
200g Raisins
200g Hazelnuts
200g Pumpkin seeds
200g Sunflower seeds
65ml Linseed
65ml Sesame seeds
80g Dried apricots
50g Dried apple rings
80g Dates
250ml Rolled oats
Variety jams (Raspberry, Apricot, Black Cherry)
Castor sugar
Vanilla pod
From the cupboard:
Salt
Black Pepper
Nutmeg
Honey
Olive oil
Sugar
Yeast
Bread flour
Self raising flour
All purpose flour
Coffee
Tea
From the fridge:
Unsalted butter
Lightly salted butter
Milk
Time Planner
What can be done on Friday night:
Set the table
Make the muesli
Mix pancake dough (dough should rest, but don’t put it in the fridge)
Dish butter and jam into serving bowls
Set out serving plates
Cut the salmon into approximately 1cm square pieces
Bake pastry base for the quiche
Snip the chives
Fry bacon for quiche
Chop spring onion
Line muffin tin with paper cups
Plan of Action:
3 hours before serving brunch, start preparing the following:
Make bread dough and let it prove
Prepare the fruit platter (cover with cling wrap and store in fridge)
Prepare the cheese platter
Prepare the meat platter (cover with cling wrap and put it back in the fridge until about 30 minutes before serving brunch)
2 hours before serving the following can be done:
Switch on the oven
Prepare muffin mixture
Bake muffins
Prepare scone dough
Bake scones
Grease and flour loaf tins
Knock down bread dough
Shape bread dough into loaves and put into prepared tins
Prove bread for another hour
1 hour before serving the following can be done:
Bake potato pancakes
Prepare asparagus and avo on rocket (cover with cling wrap until serving)
Fill pastry case with bacon, cheese and spring onion
Bake bread
Prepare ice bucket for bubbly
Scoop muesli into a serving bowl and put on the table
CRUNCH Time - ½ an hour before serving:
Add egg and cream mixture to quiche and bake
Put fruit platter, yoghurt, milk, sugar and honey on table
Pour juice in jugs for pouring
Open the bubbly and wine
Note: Because our table is not big enough to accommodate all the serving platters at once, we serve in installments. As soon as the guests have finished muesli and fruit, it gets removed from the table onto a server and the rest of the serving platters, baked goodies and jams are set out.
Toasted Muesli
What would you need to prepare the muesli:
Roasting tin
Chopping board
Small sharp knife
Small bowl
Large mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Ingredients for the muesli:
45ml honey
45ml canola oil
250ml rolled oats
200g blanched almonds (coarsely chopped)
200g roasted hazelnuts (coarsely chopped)
200g pumpkin seeds
200g sunflower seeds
65ml linseed (finely ground in a spice blender)
65ml sesame seeds (toasted)
80g dried apricots (coarsely chopped)
50g dried apple rings (coarsely chopped)
80g seeded dates (coarsely chopped)
Method:
1. Pre heat the oven to 180C
2. Combine the honey and oil in a small bowl
3. Mix the oats, nuts and pumpkin seeds in a separate bowl
4. Drizzle the honey and oil mixture over the oat and nut mixture
5. Mix well and then spread into a large roasting tin
6. Toast in the pre-heated oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned
7. Toss muesli from time to time until it is done
8. When the oats mixture has cooled down, mix in the remaining seeds as well as the chopped fruits
9. Store muesli in an air tight container
What would you need to present the soup:
Cereal bowls that can take about 250 -300ml of liquid
Considerations:
If you like a sweeter muesli, just add more honey when toasting the oats and nuts. Be careful when adding more honey as the muesli will easily burn while toasting it.
Serve the muesli with yoghurt or milk and pieces of fresh fruit.
Always make sure that there is sugar and honey on the table for the guests with a sweet tooth
Bread
2 medium sized loaf tins or 12 miniature loaf tins
Large mixing bowl
Small bowl
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Ingredients:
1kg Bread flour
30g Instant yeast
60ml Honey
600ml Tepid water
100ml Olive oil
30g salt
Extra flour for dusting
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 190C
2. Dissolve the yeast and honey in half the tepid water
3. Sieve the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour
5. Pour in all the dissolved yeast mixture
6. Carefully stir the flour into the yeast mixture
7. Pour the rest of the tepid water into the mixture and incorporate all the ingredients to make a moist dough
8. Add the olive oil and knead the dough for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth
9. Fold the dough into a round ball
10. Cover with cling wrap
11. Allow the dough to prove for an hour in a warm place
12. Grease and flour loaf tins
13. After an hour, knock the dough down
14. Form into loaves and put into prepared tins
15. Allow to prove for another hour
16. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes
17. If you tap the bread at the bottom and it sounds hollow, it is cooked.
Ring the changes:
Add gorgonzola cheese squares to the dough before forming into loaves.
What would you need to present all the baked goodies:
Basket lined with a clean napkin or tea towel
Beautiful tray
Hat box lined with a clean napkin or tea towel
Considerations:
Miniature loaves will take a shorter time to bake than big loaves, so check after 30 – 35 minutes to see whether they are done.
Berry Muffins
(Simply Bill by Bill Granger)
What would you need to prepare the muffins:
Large mixing bowl
Spoon for mixing
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Muffin tin
Paper muffin cases
Ingredients:
120g Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
225g Castor sugar
2 Eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
170ml Sour cream
210g Self raising flour
1¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
150g Mixed berries
Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2. Line muffin tin with paper muffin cases
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition
5. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix well
6. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until almost combined
7. Add the berries and gently fold through the mixture
8. Scoop into muffin cases and bake for 25 minutes until golden
9. Makes 12 muffins
Considerations:
I tried both fresh and frozen berries and both work well in this recipe, however be very careful with frozen berries. They tend to bleed into the mixture when they are folded into the mixture too vigorously.
Toss the berries in a little bit of flour first and they won’t sink into the mixture.
Don’t overfill the paper cases – about half full should suffice.
Scones
What would you need to prepare the scones:
Large mixing bowl
Metal cutter
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Baking tray
Knife
Ingredients:
450g Self raising flour
45ml Castor sugar
45g Unsalted butter (cut into little cubes)
375ml milk
Pinch of salt
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 220C
2. Lightly grease a baking tray
3. Place flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl
4. Add butter and gently rub into the flour using your finger tips
5. Make well in the centre of the mixture and add about ¾ of the milk
6. Cut the milk through the flour mixture with a knife to mix to a soft sticky dough
7. Add remaining milk if needed
8. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface
9. Knead the dough lightly until smooth
10. Press dough out gently until about 2cm thickness
11. Dip a 5cm cutter into flour and cut as many rounds as you can from the dough
12. Place scones on the lightly greased baking tray
13. Gently knead remaining dough into shape again, a little thicker than the first time
14. Cut out rounds again
15. Brush top of scones with milk
16. Bake in a very hot oven for 15 minutes or until tops are browned and scones sound hollow when tapped with finger tips
Considerations:
The less the dough gets handled, the lighter the scones will be. I use a food processor when mixing the butter into the flour.
When you turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, don’t use to much flour because the delicate balance of the ingredients will be upset.
When baking scones, the oven should be very hot to make the scones rise quickly.
The scones that are pressed out of the second handling, won’t be as light as the first ones.
Cream or buttermilk can be used instead of milk when making the scone dough.
Use a sharp metal cutter for scones – it won’t squash the dough, but cut right through it.
After the scones have baked, turn them out onto a wire rack. If you want soft scones, wrap them immediately in a clean tea towel or table napkin. If you want scones with crisp tops, leave them to cool on the wire rack uncovered.
Note: Some of the guests were of the opinion that the scones were too doughy and they prefer lighter scones. For those people, I have included an alternative recipe. I have tested this recipe on Sunday afternoon after the brunch and these scones were definitely lighter, but also required much more careful handling.
Scones
(Alternative Recipe)
What would you need to prepare the scones:
Large mixing bowl
Metal cutter
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Baking tray
Knife
Ingredients:
450g Self raising flour
150g Unsalted butter
250ml Milk
60ml Castor sugar
Pinch of salt
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 220C
2. Lightly grease a baking tray
3. Place flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl
4. Add butter and gently rub into the flour using your finger tips
5. Make well in the centre of the mixture and add about ¾ of the milk
6. Cut the milk through the flour mixture with a knife to mix to a soft sticky dough
7. Add remaining milk if needed
8. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface
9. Knead the dough lightly until smooth
10. Press dough out gently until about 2cm thickness
11. Dip a 5cm cutter into flour and cut as many rounds as you can from the dough
12. Place scones on the lightly greased baking tray
13. Gently knead remaining dough into shape again, a little thicker than the first time
14. Cut out rounds again
15. Brush top of scones with milk
16. Bake in a very hot oven for 15 minutes or until tops are browned and scones sound hollow when tapped with finger tips
Quiche Lorraine
What would you need to prepare the quiche:
Large mixing bowl
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Fluted loose-base quiche tin (25cm in diameter)
Knife
Small frying pan
Small jug
Whisk
Ingredients:
300g Plain flour
180g Unsalted butter (cut into little cubes)
2 egg yolks
6 teaspoons lemon juice
6 Bacon rashers (finely chopped)
120g Gruyere cheese (grated)
6 spring onions (chopped)
3 eggs
200ml Double cream
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Sift flour into mixing bowl
3. Rub butter into flour using finger tips
4. Add egg yolks and some lemon juice to make ingredients cling together when pressed lightly using finger tips
5. Turn pastry onto floured surface and knead gently until smooth
6. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes (rest)
7. Roll pastry out on a floured surface until it is large enough to fit into the loose-based quiche tin
8. Carefully lift pastry and ease into tin
9. Do not stretch the pastry
10. Press pastry into the fluted sides
11. Cover the pastry with baking paper
12. Place enough dried peas, beans or rice on top of the baking paper to fill the entire pastry case
13. Bake for 8 -10 minutes
14. Remove paper and beans and bake pastry cases for another 8 – 10 minutes or until light brown
15. Cool to room temperature
16. Cook bacon in a small frying pan over medium heat until crisp
17. Drain on absorbent paper
18. Cover pastry case with cheese, sprinkle evenly with bacon and spring onion
19. Combine cream and eggs in a small jug
20. Pour into the pastry case
21. Bake for about 20 minutes until set and lightly browned
Considerations:
The reason for resting the pastry is to prevent it from shrinking when baked.
Pastry cases can be baked up to a week ahead of time and stored in an airtight container.
I use a food processor when mixing the butter into the flour.
Note: I used small individual loose based quiche tins. I just could not roll out the pastry dough thin enough without it breaking into pieces. Because the tins were so small the balance between the pastry cases and the filling was totally incorrect. So I tested another pastry dough on the Sunday afternoon after the brunch and that turned out much better as it could be rolled out much thinner.
Short Crust Pastry
(Leiths Cookery Bible)
What would you need to prepare the pastry:
Large mixing bowl
Measuring cup
Measuring spoon
Fluted loose-base quiche tin (25cm in diameter)
Ingredients:
170g plain flour
Pinch of salt
100g Unsalted butter
1 Egg yolk
Very cold water to mix
Method:
1. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl
2. Rub in the butter until it resembles bread crumbs
3. Mix the egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of water and sprinkle half over the flour
4. Mix to a firm dough, first with a knife and finally with one hand
5. It may be necessary to add more water, but the pastry should not be too damp
6. Chill, wrapped, in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before using
7. Lightly dust the work surface with flour
8. Roll the pastry with a lightly floured rolling pin
9. Line the tins with pastry and gently push into the flutes
10. This recipe is enough to make about 6 individual 8cm pastry cases
Potato and Smoked Salmon Pancakes
What would you need to prepare the pancakes:
Large mixing bowl
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
3l saucepan
Potato masher / ricer
Mixing spoon
Sieve
Ingredients:
650g Mashed potato
3 teaspoons self raising flour
3 Eggs
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons double cream
2 Egg whites
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
100g sliced smoked salmon
Method:
1. Mix mashed potato with flour, whole eggs, milk and cream
2. Beat until smooth
3. Beat in the extra egg whites and seasonings
4. Pass through a sieve into clean bowl
5. Put to one side to rest
6. Heat a griddle or skillet until evenly hot
7. Grease lightly with oil
8. Drop dessert spoons of mixture onto the griddle, it should hold its shape straight away
9. Put the small pieces of salmon on top and then a little more potato batter to enclose the filling
10. After about a minute, when the underside is golden, flip over with a palette knife and cook on the other side
Considerations:
When resting the batter, don’t put it in the fridge. This will change the consistency of the batter and make it very difficult to handle when baking the pancakes.
It is very important to find the right temperature when baking the pancakes – if it is too hot, the pancakes will burn and still be raw on the inside.
Before flipping the pancakes, make sure it is set at the bottom – if there are little bubbles on the sides, it is usually a good indication that it is set.
These pancakes can also be served as a starter with hollandaise sauce.
Avo and Asparagus on Rocket
What would you need to prepare the main course:
Chopping board
Knife
Bowl for blanching asparagus
Bowl for refreshing asparagus
Ingredients:
1 punnet rocket
2 avocado pears (peeled and sliced into strips)
300g thin green asparagus
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Rinse asparagus and pour boiling water over it
2. Refresh asparagus in ice water after 3 – 4 minutes
3. Layer the rocket, asparagus and avo on a platter
4. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the asparagus and avo
5. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper
Brunch, who knew it would be so much fun, despite waking up so early. We started the work on the day at 7:30 am ,way to early for my liking but hey I was bizarrely excited and not cranky at all. Mariette then disappeared to try and find cosmos on the side of the road, didn’t quite work out, but we had marshmallows to keep our pink theme current.
This means that, she left me alone to my own devices while making the scone dough. Here is a tip that I have learned after my first scone experience, if you think the dough is done it probably is. Don’t carry on prodding and kneading it, it makes the scones a wee bit heavy. Other than that my scones were a huge success. The brunch in general was a hit, very few criticisms at all really.
Main concern was the thickness of the pastry on the quiche, gotta find a way to make it thinner. Also a personal bug bear of mine was the bacon on top of the quiche I like it inside the mixture but that’s me.
The muffins were rather yummy and cake like, but I also learned not to over fill the muffin trays cause they tend to rise funny and if u put too many berries on top the muffins flop inside a bit. I sear second attempt and I still have these damn things flopping, first the soup now the muffins. Never fear I will persevere.
The little individual bread loves were a huge success aesthetically and very yummy. There is nothing like freshly basked bread, especially with the assortment of jam, cheese and cold meats that Mariette had laid out.
The potato flapjacks and salmon were surprisingly good. Sounded most odd to me, but definitely would be a cool addition to brunch, we forgot to serve it, but I ate while flipping so I can speak from experience. A note to the wise, flipping potato flapjacks is a lot harder than normal flapjacks; it is a lot gooier so u have a habit of it being a gooey mess if u don’t judge it properly. But hey still tastes good if its messy and since all the flops go to me I was happy.
Then of course let us not forget the muesli, I mean who does that? It comes in a box, but hell it was rather delicious. I personally am not a muesli fan, shocking revelation I know, but I actually rather enjoyed this.
Last but not least the avo and asparagus, apparently was a great combination and was most popular, I unfortunately forgot to taste it. Oh well I am sure I will survive.
On the wine front we went with simple dry bubbly, in the form of woolies brut rose and pongraz, which being nice and simple went down rather well. We also had a rather lovely rose, which I think only Mariette and I had, we were trying to keep with the pink theme. I personally think it worked very well with the more savory dishes. It is a rather unique rose called Lekkerwijn, and what makes it work for me is that it isn’t that sweet.
Well that was brunch, had more fun with my portion of the preparation that with dinner, maybe it reminded me of my father, maybe it was easier or maybe I am relaxing a bit more around the kitchen. Hell who cares I had fun, I think Mariette did too, even though she is now rather fluish, and that is most important. The guests were fabulous, not very critical, I like that, added such sparkle and presence at the table. Think we may have over fed them , as they only drew their first match at 2 all. They will definitely be invited back for both their sparkling personalities and the fact that they kept clearing the table and packing the dishwasher..
Next up lunch, oy, the stress returns.. just kidding, lunch doesn’t sound as scary as supper.
