I was gifted a Str*tchd massage for Mother's Day (can hardly wait) and, for my contribution to the day, cooked brunch for my mother, sister and L.. One of my close friends had just visited us from France and brought a foie gars with her and my sister kindly provided a bottle of bubbly so a particularly celebratory lunch ensued!
Foie Gras with Toasts, Umeboshi-Orange Marmalade
I meant to serve these with a fig jam but apparently we had either finished it or the cleaning lady got rid of it - in either case it was not in the fridge where I expected it to be. Necessity as the mother of invention sometimes does work, and L. and I cobbled together a mixture of umeboshi compote, orange marmalade and orange zest which was curiously and addictively delicious. L. hit the jackpot by getting to the bakery just as a batch of sour dough boules came out of the oven so we had gorgeous bread from which t make the accompanying toasts.
Kuku Sabzi Inspired Frittata
Kuku Sabzi is a Persian dish which I had had in a tapas inspired restaurant in LA. The original dish was an egg based dish full of ground walnuts, rose petals, spring onions, mint and coriander but I changed it up by omitting the ground walnuts and adding tarragon, nira, beet greens, dandelion greens and jalapeno to the original to make it more brunchy. Dried rose petals, if used correctly, add a nice tartness to a dish with not a whiff of old lady soap!
Merguez Spice Scented Pork Meatballs
Try as I might, I could not - for some reason - find ground lamb for these (stocks wiped out at Easter?) so instead I used the spices that I would have used for lamb merguez patties, which I know my mom loves, and substituted pork. At the end I tossed the meatballs in a little za'atar to finish them as I find pork a sweeter meat than lamb.
Rhubarb-Rose Petal Pavlova
This was a behomoth of a dessert. It wasn't as pretty as it could have been if handled by someone with more dessert skills than mine, though I did OK, but its sheer size made it an impressive ending to the meal. And, for once with a dessert of mine, it was delicious! The meringue turned out perfectly - crisp on the outside and mashmallowy within, the whipped cream and the poached rhubarb worked perfectly together in terms of balancing sweetness and tartness and the rose petal and rhubarb sauce added a little extra astringency to fight through the sweetness of the meringue (and to add some color).
Comments