We had both families over to celebrate Mother’s Day. It was a challenge to create a menu for the three mom’s, mine, Lon’s, and Kasi (Lon’s sister and new mom). My mom is allergic to lemon and lime, Lon’s mom cannot have any balsamic or red wine vinegar or red onion, and Kasi keeps kosher.
Watercress, Cara Cara Navel, and Edamame Salad
Veggie & Goat Cheese Sandwiches
Mini Spinach Laguiole Quiche
Maple Bacon
Ancho Cornmeal Crusted Tilapia
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
The Watercress, Cara Cara Navel, and Edamame Salad is one I will have to write a recipe for, probably soon. The salad is mainly just those three ingredients, which looked beautiful together, with a vinaigrette, made from freshly squeezed juice, Orange Muscat Vinegar (from Trader Joe’s), Honey Dijon Mustard, ground ginger, and salt and pepper. My mom ate several helpings of it and was totally impressed.
The Veggie and Goat Cheese Sandwiches are one of my vegetarian favorites. They are great to mostly prepared the day before, fire roasting orange and yellow bell peppers, grilling zucchini with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and grilling Japanese eggplant marinated in white wine vinegar, olive oil, thyme, and oregano. Today, we just assembled them by spreading herbed goat cheese on Semolina bread and stacking the veggies.
I wrote the recipe for the Mini Spinach Laguiole Quiche and you’ll want to use it. This platter was cleaned out super fast and they are really adorable.
Mini Spinach Laguiole Quiche
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 (10 oz) package of frozen spinach
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup shredded Laguiole or cheddar
1. Cream the butter and cream cheese together. Add flour and mix until well blended.
2. Form 22-24 balls (about 1″) and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 20 minutes before dough is done chilling.
3. While the dough is chilling, cook spinach to package instructions, drain well and set aside.
4. When dough is ready, press into the bottom and sides of the mini muffin pan (sprayed with non-stick).
5. Whisk together eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Stir in cheese and spinach.
6. Spoon egg mixture into each cup. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
I asked Lon to make the time consuming Maple Bacon because it is just awesome. Of course, my dad ate way more bacon then he should have.
Lon also made a great Ancho Cornmeal Crusted Tilapia with a Raspberry Aioli. Of course, he did not write down his recipe, and I doubt I’m going to be able to get him to.
We finished with a Cream Cheese Pound Cake, a recipe from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes. It was very dense which apparently, everyone really liked.
It was a really lovely brunch and I would make any of these dishes again. If you haven’t had enough yet, check out our menu from last year.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mother’s out there!
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The salad looks very refreshing. The mini quichese are making me drool and the maple bacon… yum… Eddie and I still talk about that stuff, haha.
Jessica is right, no recipe written down for the fish. I need to get a kitchen intern. Anyway, here is the gist of what went in, if you want to try your hand at this one (all measurements are very rough, I didn’t measure anything):
I made a raspberry-garlic aioli by whipping an egg yolk with two mashed garlic cloves (mashed with a pinch of kosher salt), along with a tablespoon of honey dijon mustard. Then I slowly drizzled in good extra virgin olive oil, until I had a bit over a cup of aioli. Then I whisked in about three tablespoons of raspberry white wine vinegar and some more salt and white pepper to taste. Oh, I also sprinkled in a solid tablespoon of dried parsley.
Separately, I shredded ancho chilis (dried poblanos), sans seeds, in the food processor. Then I let them sit in about two teaspoons of hot water, for about an hour.
I mixed about a cup of cornmeal and a 1/4 cup of bread crumbs with two teaspoons garlic powder, a tablespoon of dried parsley, and a teaspoon of mustard powder. Then I moistened the mixture with about two tablespoons of the aioli and enough extra virgin olive oil for it to just be moist enough to clump.
The tilapia was seasoned with salt and black pepper and flash fried lightly in vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet. I undercooked the fish, about 40 seconds per side, then placed on a baking sheet. The topping was piled atop each piece. THe whole sheet baked at 400 for about 6 minutes, then broiled for 2.5 minutes.
The fish was served on a plate with parsley, and the aioli on the side in minicups. Yum!
Two corrections… I only used one ancho, and I forgot to mention that I added the ancho mash into the cornbread topping mixture.
Kasi found the fish too spicy and was told by Lon that it was Ancho and therefore not hot. However, I find several places online that specify ancho/poblano as mild to moderate – I’m not crazy it was spicy!
http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?id=10072
http://www.epicurean.com/articles/hot-peppers.html
Kasi, “spicy” is all relative, and many different food types (and their chemicals) give the sensation of spicy (piquant) without actually being spicy. And people react to those different chemicals differently. In regards to capsaicin and Scoville Ratings, ancho chilis are about as low as they come, in the range of 1000-1500 SUs, rating them from 1.5 – 8 times less spicy than a jalapeno or 15-50 times less spicy than tabasco. By most people’s terms, that’s “not spicy”. Most chefs consider anchos sweet and berry like (hence their pairing with the raspberry aioli).
There was tons of garlic in there and some black pepper, which contain allicin and piperine (respectively), both of which cause the “spicy” sensation for some people.
From a third-party source, we’d prefer Penzey’s advice over McCormick’s. We like to buy our spices from Penzeys Spices (we’ve mentioned them before) as they seem to be very knowledgeable and we’ve found their selection and quality to be superb. Penzey describes Anchos as “sweet, rich peppers with very little heat”.
I am sure the mom’s loved this. Talking of spicy I remember how Sadri at langkawai would keep feeding us dishes and felt flummoxed that we did not find them to be spicy