There’s nothing less relaxing than being told to relax. The same is true of certain meals: being asked to bring “a dish” to an informal party can be more stressful than being told exactly what to make.
It’s the same with weekend breakfasts. However elaborate and involved the recipe, it’s often pitched as perfect for a lazy, Sunday morning or relaxed, weekend brunch. I have no doubt I’ve been guilty of this in the past, so, to redress the balance, I’m dedicating this and next week’s recipes to those among us who are unashamedly serious about their breakfast. These recipes make no bones about the fact that they require more planning and cooking than your basic boiled egg.
Even so, the brisket can be cooked a day or two ahead, so you’ve got just a sandwich to fry on the day, while the pancake batter can be part-mixed the night before. Mind you, all that prep perpetuates the delightful illusion of the casual weekend breakfast.
Sweet potato pancakes with maple-glazed bacon
The batter can be made a day ahead, up to the stage before the egg whites are added. Serves four.
450g sweet potatoes
85g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp ground cumin
Salt
2 eggs, separated
70ml whole milk
20g unsalted butter, melted, plus 50g diced, for frying
2 tsp maple syrup
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 green chilli, finely chopped
25g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
5g tarragon leaves, finely chopped
For the salad
250g long radishes, quartered lengthways
15g coriander leaves
15g rocket
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
For the topping
8 slices smoked streaky bacon
2 tbsp maple syrup
Heat the oven to 220°C/425F/gas mark 7. Put the whole, unpeeled sweet potatoes on an oven tray and roast for an hour, until soft and browned, then remove and leave to cool. Peel and discard the skin, then put the flesh in a clean J-cloth or piece of muslin. Draw up the sides, roll into a ball and squeeze out any liquid: you should be left with about 180g of flesh.
Turn down the oven to 160C/320F/gas mark 2½. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cumin and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt. Put the egg yolks, milk, melted butter and maple syrup in a second bowl, whisk to combine, then stir into the dry ingredients. Add the sweet potato, spring onion, chilli and herbs, and stir until smooth. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff, then gently fold in.
Melt half the diced butter in a large frying pan on a medium heat. When it starts to foam, spoon in three heaped tablespoons of the batter and gently spread out into a pancake 7-8cm wide and 1.5cm thick. Repeat until you have three or four pancakes in the pan, then fry for three to four minutes, turning halfway, when bubbles appear in the middle. Transfer to an oven tray lined with baking paper, and repeat with the rest of the batter, wiping clean the pan and adding butter as needed. You’ll end up with eight pancakes.
Mix all the salad ingredients with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
Heat the grill. Place the bacon on a wire rack on top of a foil-lined tray and brush with half the maple syrup. Grill for two minutes, until the bacon starts to turn crisp, then turn, brush with the remaining syrup and grill for a minute or two, until crisp.
Just before serving, warm the pancakes in the oven, then put two on each plate, topping each portion with two slices of bacon. Spoon the salad alongside and serve.
Grilled cheese sandwich with 10-hour brisket
There’s 10 hours’ cooking here, so get this in the oven early (or late, if cooking it overnight). This makes four sandwiches, but there’s enough meat to make eight, so freeze the leftovers for another time.
720g rolled piece of brisket
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
¾ tsp sweet smoked paprika
¼ tsp cayenne
100ml red wine
50g dark muscovado sugar
60g tomato ketchup
8 1.5cm-thick slices sourdough
80g unsalted butter, softened
200g mature cheddar, cut into 2mm-thick slices
4 pickled whole green chillies
Heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Remove the string and unroll the brisket, and put it in a bowl with the oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper. Heat a griddle on a high flame, then grill the brisket for four to five minutes, turning it often, so it gets blackened and smoky all over. Transfer to a high-sided, 20cm x 25cm ceramic baking tray.
Put the cumin, paprika, cayenne, wine, sugar and ketchup in a small saucepan, add 100ml water and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, and bring to a boil. Leave to bubble for two minutes, until starting to thicken, then pour all over the meat, so its surface is covered in sauce; the sauce should come a quarter of the way up the sides of the dish. Cover the meat with a sheet of baking paper, then seal the whole dish with two layers of aluminium foil.
Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat to 110C/230F, and cook for 10 hours, until the meat is very soft and falling apart and the sauce has slightly reduced. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan (you should have about 350ml), bring to a boil, and cook for four to five minutes, until thick, sticky and reduced to about 90ml. Shred the meat (you’ll have about 440g) and put in a bowl. Pour on the marinade and mix well.
To assemble the sandwiches, butter each slice of bread on one side. Heat a large frying-pan on a medium-high flame, then lay in four slices buttered-side down. Put two slices of cheese on top of each, followed by 50g of the beef. Spread out the beef mix, then top with two more slices of cheese. Put a whole chilli on top and finish with a second slice of bread, buttered side up.
Press down the sandwich with a spatula for a minute, so the bread toasts to golden-brown, then turn over and press down again for a minute, to toast the other side and melt the cheese. Serve warm.
Baked semolina puddings with blueberries and vanilla
These are somewhere between a porridge and a fluffy soufflé. If you don’t want them to deflate, serve them fresh from the oven, either for a leisurely breakfast or even as a light dessert. I like to bake them in rustic dishes, but ramekins work just fine, too. Serves six, generously.
30g unsalted butter, plus 15g extra for greasing
60g caster sugar, plus 30g extra for coating
1 vanilla pod, split open and seeds scraped out
700ml whole milk
200g fine semolina
80g honey
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt
2 egg yolks and 3 egg whites
200g blueberries
300g Greek yoghurt, to serve
For the blueberry syrup
40g caster sugar
¾ tbsp lemon juice
150g blueberries
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Grease six shallow ramekins (about 10cm in diameter and 5cm deep) with 15g butter, then sprinkle in 30g sugar and turn the dishes round to spread the sugar evenly.
Put the vanilla pod and seeds in a medium saucepan, add the milk and warm through on a medium flame, for five minutes, until it starts to steam. Turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes, whisking a few times to separate the seeds, then take out the vanilla pod (rinse and keep it: you’ll use it in the syrup later) and return the pan to a medium heat. Add the semolina, butter, sugar, honey, lemon zest and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and cook for four minutes, whisking, until the mixture is the consistency of a smooth, pourable cake batter. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then lightly whisk the egg yolks and fold into the batter, followed by the blueberries.
In a bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then gently fold into the batter, taking care not to knock out the air. Spoon into the ramekins, gently shaking them to smooth it out, then put on an oven tray and bake for 20-22 minutes, until golden-brown and risen by about 2cm.
Meanwhile, make the syrup. Put the sugar in a small saucepan with the lemon juice, a tablespoon of water and the vanilla pod. Cook for a minute on a medium-high heat, shaking the pan until the sugar has dissolved, then add the blueberries and stir for two or three minutes, so they soften and release their juices. Discard the vanilla pod, and leave the syrup to thicken and cool a little.
Serve the puddings the moment they come out of the oven, with some yoghurt and syrupy blueberries spooned on top, and the rest in separate bowls on the side.
