Family & Friends

Money Mom Monday: Entertaining With Brunch

Posted by Jean

When I was in cooking school, the instructors made a point that when restaurants want to boost their margins, they cook omelettes, crepes and the like – made with cheap ingredients like eggs and flour.  In other words:  Brunch. So last week, this post by Eric Wahlgren at DailyFinance caught my eye. Wahlgren reports that brunch at restaurants is up 8.2% for the year, while traffic was actually down 1% for breakfast, 2% for lunch and 4% for dinner.

Brunch has always been a recession-friendly meal, even when we weren’t in a recession.   Not only is it typically inexpensive – you can take your family out to brunch for half the cost of going out to dinner, and solicit less glares over your high chair, to boot – but, as the name implies, it combines two meals into one, lowering the strain on your wallet even further.

I’d like to put forth another option, though – entertaining with brunch. At this time of year, your entertaining budget, if you ever had one, is still running dry from the drain of the holidays. A dinner party may be out of the question. But inviting the family next door or a few of your girlfriends over for a Sunday morning brunch is well within reach. Good brunch recipes involve many of the things you already have on hand – eggs are always in my fridge, flour in my pantry – and very little time. I rounded up a couple to get you started (by the way, these work just as well as breakfast for dinner – a favorite with my kids).

The first, a frittata, is from my friend Mark Bittman, who wrote How To Cook Everything, a cookbook I use time and time again. You can find more of his approachable recipes on his New York Times blog, Bitten. The next – because what’s brunch without pancakes? – is from Chef Ryan Angulo at Buttermilk Channel, a Brooklyn restaurant known for its comfort food.

Mark Bittman’s Potato-Asparagus Frittata

4 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

2 medium waxy potatoes

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and peeled if necessary

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter

1/2 large or 1 medium onion, chopped

6 eggs

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Method:

1. Rinse the potatoes and microwave them on high for four minutes, or until tender but not quite done. (You can do this way ahead if you like, even a day.) Remove and let cool. Put the asparagus in a microwave-proof dish with 1 tablespoon of water and a bit of salt and pepper. Cover tightly and nuke about 2 minutes, until bright green and semi-cooked.

2. When they’re cool enough, peel the potatoes (or not; it isn’t mandatory) and cut them into thick slices. Heat the oil or butter in a 10-inch oven-proof skillet and, when it’s hot, add the potatoes; season and brown them well on both sides, adjusting heat as necessary. Remove with a slotted spoon and turn the heat to medium-low.

3. Cook the onion in the same skillet with some salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the asparagus, raise the heat a bit and cook, stirring occasionally, until the asparagus is fully cooked. Now turn the heat to low.

4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, or the broiler (or not; you’ll finish the frittata one of three ways). Beat the eggs with some salt and pepper in a large bowl; add the Parmesan if you’re using it. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and use a spoon if necessary to even out the top. Cook, undisturbed, until the mixture is nearly firm, about 15 minutes.

5. Nestle the potatoes into the top of the frittata. Now you can finish it in the oven or under the broiler, or just let it finish cooking on top of the stove (which will be slower). In any case, don’t overcook; it’s done when still moist but just barely firm. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Buttermilk Channel’s Buttermilk Pancakes

Makes one dozen large pancakes

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 cup milk

1 ½ cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

Method:

1. Combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl combine all wet ingredients except the melted butter. Wisk till well incorporated and smooth.

2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and wisk gently. It’s okay if the batter is lumpy. Wisk in melted butter. Let batter sit for 10 minutes at room temperature. This will allow the baking powder to do its work and aerate the batter so you have light, fluffy pancakes.

3. Cook on a well greased griddle till golden brown on both sides. Serve with maple syrup and a pat of butter.