'Brunch' ed Up, eh?

Oh don't you just love the whole idea of a brunch? Well, I do and i love going out to brunch rather than staying at home and making one. Especially after a night out on Saturday, you wake up late on Sunday and head out to a restaurant, have a 3 hour long brunch and if you have friends joining you, even better. So today was brunch day and for a change i decided to do it at home. Boy was it so much more easier and fun to have brunch than to have breakfast at 10 and then get prepared for lunch by the time you are done cleaning up after breakky.

We started off with a rather rich and heavy Frittata, washed it down with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice followed by buttermilk blueberry pancakes and a cuppa freshly brewed coffee. Yes, you guessed right..we were so full after that to even clean up and now i have a messy kitchen staring back at me. I thought id take a breather, come and blog about it and then get back to cleaning up (which basically means loading the dish washer) ;)

Bacon and Spinach Frittata

Frittata is an Italian omelet mixed with veggies, meats, cheese or rather anything of your choice and served open..and not folded. It is initially cooked on a hob top and finished off under a grill.

Bacon- 3 rashers, cooked and crumbled

Baby Spinach- 1 to 2 cups (depending on your taste. Ro didn't let me put more than a cup)

Garlic pods- 3, chopped fine

Spring onions- 3, chopped fine (both bulb and greens)

Garlic sausages- 3, cooked and chopped (optional)

Eggs- 4

Heavy cream- 30ml

Mature cheddar cheese- less than a 1/4 cup

Pepper powder- as required

Salt- to taste

Baking powder- a pinch (optional)

Clean the spinach leaves, drain and transfer them to a bowl and close with a lid. Cook in the microwave on high for about 2 minutes. Drain off the water and keep aside.

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon and sausages (if using) and preserve the oil.

If there is way too much oil, discard some and in the remaining, sautee the garlic and spring onions till light and fragrant.

Add the spinach, crumbled bacon and sausages. Season with some pepper powder and sautee for a few minutes. Check for salt and only then add, since the bacon and sausages will have some salt content in them.

Beat the eggs, cheddar cheese, cream, salt pepper and baking pwd in a bowl till light and fluffy.

Add this to the frying pan and mix well, without disturbing the ends too much. Try and distribute the filling evenly.

Cook on low fire for about 2 minutes and then cover and cook for a minute or two again. Transfer to a pre-heated grill for another 5 mins max..just to brown the top.

Cut into wedges and serve.

Notes: The garlic sausages were about to expire and so i added that too. The bacon would be good on its own or rather better, because somehow there was a conflict of flavours.

Whole milk can be used instead of heavy cream. I wanted to make sure we don't eat healthy today :)

Add mushrooms, carrots, peas or any veggie of your choice and make it an egg-etariandelight.

If you do not have an oven, you can just carefully turn the egg upside down to brown the top. Be careful though...you shouldn't crack the beautiful round shape. Invert it on to a plate first and then insert that plate back into the frying pan to be double sure. Am i making sense?

Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

This is my first time with buttermilk pancakes and i must say it does make a difference to the texture and a slight taste variation. Or am i imagining it, i don't know. I asked Ro and he said he cant remember eating pancakes made by me at all....but clarified that the Tesco one tastes a whole lot different (good different or bad different is a very time consuming argument, so i left it at that)....Thanks for that baby, i am so stupid i didn't know! DUH!

All purpose flour- 1 cup

Sugar- 4 tbsp ( optional)

Baking powder- 3/4 tsp

Baking Soda- 1/4 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Egg- 1

Buttermilk- 1 cup

Butter- 2 tbsp, melted and cooled slightly

Vanilla extract- 1/4 tsp

Fresh Blueberries- 100 gms

Mix all the dry ingredients (first 5) together and keep aside.

Whisk together the remaining, except the blueberries, and add to the dry ingredients. Stir until it is just blended and then add the blueberries. Give a final stir and keep aside for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat a non-stick skillet and pour in one ladle full of batter. After about 3 minutes, bubbles start appearing on top and at that time, flip and cook for another 2 minutes or till golden brown. Repeat till the entire batter is used up. I got about 10 medium size pancakes.

Drizzle some maple syrup, butter or even honey and serve with fresh blueberries on the side. Wanna die sooner? Add some whipped cream :0

Note: Buttermilk can be substituted with whole milk

I tried using an electric grill for the pancakes, but it was surprisingly taking too long and the bubbles were just not there...Hob top skillet is the best.

Use bananas, chocolate chips, strawberries in the place of blueberries, and I'm sure the result will be as 'fruitful' :)

Phew! that was awfully long, i think i'll get Ro to clean up ;)

Wonders with leftovers

I have been pushing the last couple of days with ready meals and junk food like burgers, hot dogs and pizzas and Ro hasn't complained till now. Its just plain laziness and also to prove to Ro that he needs me to survive...food-wise at least! I have also run out of almost everything and haven't made an effort to go grocery shopping either. The rains and cold winds have added to this misery and i just don't want to step out of the house. Yes, i go into these nonchalant moods once in a while and no matter what happens, until i feel like doing something, i just wont budge. Awesome right?

It was also the aftermath of a kitchen disaster where i tried to make a caramel something and it all just smoked up. Thank god my smoke alarm didn't go off, and after scrubbing and scratching the hardened caramel off the vessel, i was in no mood to be proactive. So after searching all the cupboards and freezer for an easy dinner option, I came across some pasta, sausages, bacon and asparagus and decided to make something eatable, which ultimately turned out quite tasty.

Wheat pasta (Fusilli)- 200 gms (was all that was left)

Spring Onion- 1 large

Baby tomatoes- 8 to 10 sliced in half

Green chillies- 3, sliced thin

Asparagus heads- 5 to 6, sliced

Pork frankfurters- 3 sliced into coin size pieces

Bacon- 2 rashers

Grated cheddar cheese (mature)- 2 hands full

Maggi seasoning sauce- a few dashes

Tabasco sauce- 1/2 tsp

Salt- to taste

Cook the pasta as per instructions with a pinch of salt. Drain and keep aside.

In a frying pan, fry the bacon rashers. Once cooked, remove and drain on a paper towel and slice into small pieces. In the same frying pan, fry the sausages in the oil oozed out from the bacon (If there is too much oil, pour out some and use the remaining). Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.

Now throw in the sliced spring onion, baby tomatoes, green chilli and asparagus and sautee till the asparagus becomes more or less cooked. Add the pasta, bacon and sausage slices, a few dashes of Maggi seasoning, Tabasco and salt and mix well. Do a taste check and if its not spicy enough, you can either put some more Tabasco sauce, chilli pwd or pepper. Towards the end, sprinkle the grated cheddar cheese and give a final stir. The heat from the pasta will make the cheese melt. So it doesn't have to be on fire. Enjoy!

Notes: You can use spinach, green peas, carrots and any other left over veggies for this meal. Ro hates asparagus, but he didn't even realize they were in it:)

If you want to make it a bit more rich, you can add some white sauce. I was lazy, so i didn't.

Instead of spring onions you can use normal onion and for baby tomatoes, the normal ones can be used. I didn't have either of those.

Also, i used both sausages and bacon, but you can choose any one or none at all if you have enough veggies to compliment

Make sure the left over oil from cooking the bacon is used to do the rest of the cooking because it gives that extra flavour to the dish.