Saturday, October 24, 2009

Brunch and other meals


Feeding houseguests always presents a challenge if you have to deal with food dislikes, time in the kitchen and budget considerations. We did this recently with a fair amount of elegance. Main courses were tortilla soup, pot roast, and seafood marinara. The pot roast covered two meals, and no one ever complains about leftover pot roast and gravy. I cooked fresh vegetables each night. Root vegetables: carrots, parsnips, potatoes and onions are cheap, as is celery. Loads of parsley from the garden. All you need is a salad.

The seafood marinara (pictured) had limited quantities of seafood and was served over pasta, so that worked out well. I went to a first rate fish market and bought scallops untreated with chemicals and large (not giant) shrimp.

Below is the brunch dish I served. Notice it calls for bread, milk, eggs and sausage, none of which break the bank. Neither are prunes gold-plated. It serves a lot and tastes great. We buy maple syrup at the Ocean State Job Lot and use it sparingly. Enjoy!

Raisin-Bread Strata with Sausage and Dried Plums

8 – 10 servings

1 pound bulk breakfast sausage ( I used pork, turkey will work)
8 large eggs
4 cups whole milk
1 ½ t. salt
¾ t. ground black pepper
1 16 ounce loaf sliced raisin-cinnamon swirl bread, each slice halved on the diagonal. (Pepperidge Farm makes a good raisin cinnamon swirl).
18 dried pitted plums (prunes) each cut into 3 pieces

Pure Maple Syrup

Sauté sausage in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of fork, about 6 minutes. Using slotted spoon, remove sausage to bowl; cool.
Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch glass baking dish.
Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper in medium bowl. Arrange half of bread in bottom of prepared dish with bases of triangles facing in same direction. Scatter half of sausage, then half of plums over bread. Arrange remaining bread in dish with triangles facing in opposite direction. Scatter remaining sausage and plums over. Pour milk mixture over; press on bread to submerge. Cover and chill overnight.
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place strata on rimmed baking sheet. Bake uncovered until strata is pulled and golden and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let stand 10 minutes. Cut strata into squares and serve with maple syrup.

From Bon Appetit