Friday, September 08, 2006

Festive Saturday Morning Brunch



Well, as I mentioned last time I wanted to prepare a special Brunch for my parents, my very tiny way to thank them for all the help they have given me in the past year and especially in renovating my apartment.
The whole of last week I was busy planning, shopping and preparing for this Brunch.

The final Menu included:
Bruschetta Benedictian Style
Crumble de Courgettes aux Champignons (Zucchini and Mushroom Crumble) published in Clotilde Dusoulier Chocolate & Zucchini *this blog was the one which actually inspired me to have my own food blog*
Home made Raisin rolls
Summer Salad
Fennel and pomegranate salad (Israeli chef Israel Aharoni's recipe - there is a movie of the stages for those who don't understand Hebrew)

Cherry tomato and pine nuts salad
Baked baby egg plant
Tehinna with pine nuts
Plain white Cheese
Cottage Cheese

and for desert:
Yogurt Moroccan Style
Bread Pudding (Israel Aharoni)



Because there were so many dishes to prepare I had to pre-orgenize the preparations. I started with the Raisin Rolls on Tuesday, I simply froze them after they cooled down and took out some of them this morning, the rest are still in the freezer.
Raisin Rolls:
1/2 kg. all purpose flour
20 gr. dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
Vanilla extract
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup water or milk

Beaten egg and Sesame seeds for the coating

Preparation:
I learnt in a "yeat dough" baking class that the dry yeast should be mixed first with a bit of flour and milk (in room temperature) in order for it to start the fermentation process. The yeast this way start fermenting and raising because it is fed on the flour and being moisturised by the milk. Both the flour and milk serve as a catalizator for the leavening. While the yeast is growing:
Mix the flour, sugar and raisins together
Make a dimple in the mixture and pour in the oil the eggs and the vanilla.
After 10 minutes that the yeast has "worked" add them to the rest of the ingrediants and start kneading.
Once the dough is ready let it rest for 2 hours.
After 2 hours the size should have multiply.
Make little balls (ping pong size) and orgenize on a greased baking tin.
Let it rest for another hour.
Pre-heat the oven for 180c.
After an hour brush the balls with egg and scatter sesame on top and put in the overn until the rolls are getting golden and puffier.

As Clotilde suggests I prepared the zucchinis, the mushrooms and the crumbs the night bfore and in the morning I only baked it all together. The bread pudding I also prepared the night before and pre-heated before serving.

I woke up very early on Saturday morning and cut all the salads. I think the secret for a real good salad lies within the sauce and the little additions to the vegetables. So my summer salad consisted of lettuce, baby leafs vegetables and the additions were pear, walnuts and grated blue cheese. For the souce I used olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey, salt and pepper.
For the cherry tomatos I added fresh basil, black olives, pine nuts and garlic. The sauce consisted of olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper.

Eventually the only thing I had to prepare on the spot was the Bruschetta Benedictian Style, and this is what I did:

I prepared the bruschettas a bit before the brunch and kept them warm.

Preparation:
Mix olive oil garlic and thyme, brush the sliced bread. Put on a warm skillet and fry from each side until the bread is toasted a bit.

Poach the eggs... Well, the first time I poached an egg it turned out really lovely, this time because of the pressure to have everything perfect it didn't turn out as nice but it was still tasty.

On a bruschetta place a peice of smoke salmon, on top of the salmon place the poached egg and on top of the egg pour hollandaise souce Serve warm!

In the next post I will write about the Tehinna which is the easiet thing to make, you just need to have a good tehina paste!

1 Comments:

Blogger Star-Apple said...

I have plenty of Ideas for pemegranate. But they are realy a lovely additiong to any salad!
you can email me and I will send you some recipes if you like. gatwainer et yahoo dot com

9:08 PM  

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