Everybody Cooks!: brunch

Showing posts with label brunch. Show all posts

Buttermilk Pancakes

There is still nothing that says "Sunday Morning" more than some warm, fluffy pancakes. It is even better if they are buttermilk pancakes; but you can always make a healthier version by replacing the buttermilk with regular milk, and omitting the butter entirely, as shown here.

But I am feeling especially Sunday-ish today, so we are going full buttermilk. Mmmm; then I shall take a well-deserved nap.

For about 6-8 medium pancakes, you will need:

One tablespoon of melted butter
One egg
One tablespoon of sugar
One cup of buttermilk
A quarter teaspoon of baking soda
One tablespoon of vanilla sugar*
One tablespoon of baking powder
One cup of flour
A pinch of salt

* If you do not have vanilla sugar, you can substitute this with a half teaspoon of vanilla syrup and a half tablespoon of regular sugar.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Resting Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Start by mixing all your dry ingredients with a whisk, i.e. the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Next, break and whisk the egg in a bowl until it is nice and frothy.

Add the rest of the wet ingredients, i.e. the melted butter and the buttermilk (and the vanilla syrup if you did not use vanilla sugar).

Whisk the mixture until it is homogenous and frothy.

Make a well in your dry ingredients.

And add the wet ingredients into the middle.

With a spoon or spatula, incorporate the wet and dry ingredients. Do not over stir, or mix too quickly, or you will start developing gluten which will make your pancakes taste weird and feel elastic. A general guide is to stir ten times and then stop. Okay, sometimes I go to twelve, but the point is to actually count each stirring revolution you make and be conscious of not over-stirring.

If your batter seems lumpy, that is fine.

Let the pancake batter sit for about ten minutes so that the wet and dry ingredients can get to know each other a little bit better.

After the ten minutes are up, warm up a flat pan or griddle on medium heat and grease it lightly.

Scoop some of the batter onto the pan. If you have a large enough pan, you can make a few pancakes at a time. If this is your first time making pancakes, I suggest making one at a time.

There are many different guides for when you should flip your pancakes. Some say it is ready to be flipped when the bubbles stop forming on the top. Others say the edges will seem dry. Some even follow a strict 90 second rule. I find that if you keep a close eye on the edges, you will get an idea of when is it ready to flip. It is okay, go ahead and slip the edge of a spatula under the pancake and sneak a peak to see if it is ready. Eventually, you will find your own way.

Whichever way you choose, flip your pancake when it is ready.

This side will take less time to cook, so keep an eye on it.

Finally, serve your pancakes with maple syrup and jam, or whatever other decadence you like.

Yum.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Spanish Omelette with Chorizo

Tortilla de Patatas con Chorizo, as it would be called if you were in Spain, is basically a thick omelette made with potatoes - and in this case, Chorizo. You could serve this as part of an assortment of tapas, or as a brunch with a side salad. The best thing is that it does not need to be served hot, so you can make it in advance and serve it at room temperature. And since you are basically making one large omelette and then dividing it up into slices, pizza style, it is a much easier way to serve up breakfast for a family - rather than making four or five individual omelettes.

The following recipe is for four people if you are serving this as a brunch or lunch, more if you are serving small portions as tapas.

You will need:

Eight large eggs
Four medium potatoes, cut into small cubes
One medium onion, sliced
One small shallot, sliced
One clove of garlic, finely chopped
About 120 grams of sliced Spanish chorizo
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil
Some chopped parsley (for garnish)

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

The first thing we need to do is to get the onions/shallots and potatoes started. In a hot saute pan, add about two tablespoons of olive oil.

Add the onions and shallots to the pan, and lower the heat to medium-low.

Toss the onions and shallots around for a few minutes until they start to turn translucent.

Next, add the potatoes to the pan.

And mix them well in with onions and shallots and season with salt and pepper.

While the potatoes are cooking, break the eggs into a large bowl.

Beat them vigorously with a whisk.

Add a pinch of salt and pepper and mix it in with the eggs. You can also add some paprika, chilli flakes, and herbs, if you like.

Meanwhile, check your potatoes for doneness. They should be almost cooked, still slightly firm. At this point, add the garlic.

Add the chorizo to the pan.

And mix it in with the potatoes to get an even distribution.

Leave the mixture to sit for a few minutes for the potatoes to cook a little more and to warm up the chorizo and render some of the fat.

Then add your beaten eggs and mix everything to make sure the eggs really get all around.

Now, just cover the pan and step aside for five minutes.

Your eggs will still be runny on the top; don't worry about that. Stick a spatula around the sides to make sure the omelette is not stuck and will come away easily.

Now for the flip. There are a few ways to do this, and they all involve a third accessory to aid in the process. Do not try to simply flip this with a spatula, it is quite heavy and will definitely break. One way to do it is to place a large plate upside down on top of the pan. Ideally, the plate should be larger than the pan, but you can see that mine was just-right. Do not use a smaller plate!

Now, put one hand on the plate to hold it in place, and the other hand on the handle of the pan. In one smooth movement, invert the pan and plate so that the omelette ends up upside down on the plate.

Yes, that looks good, but we are not done yet. This is not meant to be a runny, gooey omelette, so now slide the omelette back into the pan, gooey side down, for one minute.

Again, with the aid of a plate, invert the omelette to serve.

Finally, dress with some chopped parsley, and you're done! Slice pizza style for individual sized portions, or cut into small squares and serve on toasted bread as an appetiser or with tapas.

Yummy Breakfast Sandwich

Here is a delicious breakfast sandwich that will help kickstart your weekday and help shake off those Monday blues. It is easy enough to put together in a jiffy, in between ironing your shirt and finding matching socks.

To make this sandwich, you just need:

One or two eggs; depending how eggy you like it
English muffins
A tomato slice
One or two slices of canadian bacon; depending how bacon-y you like it
A few leaves of basil
Cheese of your choice, a sharp cheddar would be a good choice.

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins

I was making a few sandwiches at the same time, so you will see me using ingredients for multiple sandwiches in the pictures below.

Lay your cut muffins (cut-side up) on an oven tray, add the slice of cheese on one half and place it in the oven to grill. Don't grill it just yet, just get it ready.

Slice your tomato and season the slice with some pepper, salt and dried basil.

Let the tomato slice rest of a bit. Meanwhile, beat your eggs in a bowl and add some salt and pepper.

Now we are ready to start cooking things. Basically, you need to grill the bacon and tomato, and cook the eggs. I did them as a scramble, but you can do them any way you wish.

When you're eggs are almost done, pop the muffins with the cheese in the oven on your grill setting to get the muffins toasted and cheese melted. Alternately, just toast your muffins if you would rather do that.

Finally, assemble your sandwich. I did Muffin-cheese-bacon-eggs-bacon-tomato-basil leaves-muffin.

Now go start your day feeling energised!

Ham and Swiss Croissants

Ham and swiss croissants are easy to prepare for a delicious meal accompanied with a simple green salad, or even for appetizers.

Your quantities will vary depending on how many croissants you want. For the purpose of this recipe, I made 6 croissants for which you will need:

6 croissants or some puff pastry that you will shape like croissants
3 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of milk
Salt
Pepper
6 to 8 slices of Ham
Swiss cheese

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

To start, pe-heat your oven at 175 C (345 F).

If you bought some croissants, this step is real easy: just cut the croissant in half.

If you bought some puff pastry, just unroll it and cut some triangle pieces.

In a saucepan, prepare your Bechamel sauce by mixing 3 tablespoons of flour with 4 tablespoons of milk. Add some salt and pepper. If you like your sauce a bit thicker, just add more flour, and if you like your sauce a bit thinner, add more milk.

Once you add the flour and the milk, don't stop whipping the sauce or you will get lumps, and we definitely don't want that.

Once you sauce is thick enough for your taste, place a slice or two of ham on the half of the croissant, pour some Bechamel sauce, and add some swiss cheese on top.