Brunch: a potted history

How to really make a meal of it…

As we sit over French toast, fruit salad, yoghurt, pastries and fancy eggs of a Saturday morning, we often find ourselves thinking ‘Brunch is a genius idea. Who thought of that?’ Well, we’ll tell you…

It was the English writer, Guy Beringer, who, well acquainted with the weekend hangover, decided Saturdays and Sundays needed moulding more sympathetically to the average carouser of 1895.

Empathetic to the party-goer who, on being roused late morning, might not wish to partake of a heavy lunch, he instead proposed, in his essay entitled ‘Brunch: a plea’ that we partake of a more hybrid meal that took in some of the light components of breakfast - pastry, tea and the like - alongside more hearty lunch-type fare for those up to it. He even had the bright idea of making cocktails a part of the meal for those who like their dog a little more hairy in the mornings.

He also made clear that it should be a sociable occasion, ideal for dissecting the events of the night before: “Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting. It is talk-compelling,” he wrote.

The following year, Punch magazine gave more detail and even differentiated brunch from ‘blunch’, reminding its readers: “The combination-meal, when nearer the usual breakfast hour is ‘brunch’ and when nearer luncheon is ‘blunch. Please don’t forget this.” As if we would!

In our February issue, our ‘Gathering’ feature is a spring weekend brunch. Here’s one of the recipes from the spread, a spring vegetable frittata. For the rest of the menu, buy our March issue, in shops now

Spring frittata

Serves 6

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

100g baby spinach

150g frozen peas

8 free range eggs

100ml semi-skimmed milk

Fresh herbs (we used thyme,  basil and sage)

50g wild rocket, to serve

1 Melt the coconut oil in a frying  pan over a medium heat and add the chopped onion and garlic. Fry for 3–4 mins until they soften.

2 Add the spinach (washed and drained) and frozen peas to the pan and stir for 3–4 mins until the spinach is starting to wilt and the vegetables are mixed in with the onion and garlic.

3 Whisk the eggs and milk in a large jug or bowl, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour into the frying pan and mix to evenly distribute the vegetables. Sprinkle fresh herbs on top and cook over a medium heat for approx 15 mins, or until you can easily slide a spatula underneath.

4 Heat the grill to a medium heat and place the frying pan under for approx 10 mins, checking at intervals to make sure the top doesn’t burn, until it is a golden colour and the egg is cooked.

5 Leave to cool before covering the frying pan with a large plate and tipping it upside down to release the frittata on to the serving plate. Sprinkle with more fresh herbs and some wild rocket to serve.

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More brunch ideas…

More from our March issue…

Recipe: Kedgeree

The days are getting longer, hens are laying again, and suddenly getting up and preparing a special breakfast on a weekend doesn’t feel like an effort, more a pleasure. There’s something very satisfying about a savoury breakfast, but of course these little bowls of goodness would be equally suited to the lunch or dinner table.  

MAKES FOUR BOWLS
300g undyed smoked haddock
570ml full-fat whole milk
60g butter
1 onion, finely diced
2 tsp light curry powder, plus extra
to garnish
60g plain flour
200g basmati rice*
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 eggs, softly boiled for 7 mins, peeled
Small bunch coriander, roughly chopped

1 Gently poach the haddock in the milk for 8 mins. Remove the haddock, reserving the milk. Cover and set aside.
2 Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the onion and curry powder and cook gently with a little salt until the onion is soft.
3 Add the flour and cook briefly to form a roux. With the pan off the heat, add one ladleful of the warm poaching milk to the roux, stirring constantly. Return the pan to a gentle heat and continue to add the milk gradually, stirring all the time. Once the milk has been incorporated, leave to simmer for 5 mins.
4 Meanwhile, cook the rice in a steamer or in boiling water, then drain. Season to taste. 5 To serve, spoon the rice into four bowls. Halve the boiled eggs and place each half in a bowl. Spoon the sauce and flaked smoked haddock into the centre and garnish with chopped coriander and a sprinkling of curry powder.

Recipe from Spoon by Annie Morris and Jonny Shimmin (Hardie Grant).

More from the March issue:

More breakfast inspiration:

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View the sampler here

Three recipes: Symmetry breakfasts by Michael Zee

Breakfast is about feeding your loved ones, says Michael Zee, who creates dishes for two that taste as good as they look. Michael Zee’s beautiful and perfectly symmetrical breakfasts are hard to resist. What began as an Instagram of his boyfriend’s breakfast now has more than 600,000 followers and led to his first cookbook.

“Breakfast is the meal that most people take for granted,” says Michael. “Chewing at one’s desk or swigging a coffee on the go, we seem to care less and less about the most important meal of the day. I want to challenge the belief that there are breakfast foods and non-breakfast foods. The fact is, anything can be breakfast – and probably is, somewhere.”

Baghdad baid masus 

If you love shakshuka, then give these special eggs from Baghdad a try: eggs fried in a spiced cumin and coriander butter, with finely diced celery and onion, served with crispy pitta chips and a herby labneh dip.

2 pitta breads
Olive oil
3 tsp za’atar
50g butter
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, grated or finely chopped
11⁄2 tsp cumin seed
11⁄2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp hot paprika or chilli powder
4 eggs
200g labneh (substitute 170g cream cheese mixed with 30g yoghurt if you’re struggling to source this)
Fresh chopped mint, parsley and coriander
Juice of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Open up the pocket of each pitta and split each into two so that you have four ovals. Cut each into strips. Place them on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with za’atar. Bake for about 15 minutes until crunchy and brown around the edges.

Heat the butter in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and add the celery, onion, garlic, cumin, coriander and paprika. Cook this for 10–12 minutes until soft.

Crack in the eggs and when they are just about set on top, put the pan in the oven with a lid on. The oven should still be hot (from baking the pitta) but not switched on.

In a bowl, mix the labneh with the freshly chopped herbs and lemon juice. Remove the eggs from the oven and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve from the pan at the table, with dollops of the herby labneh and pitta chips for dipping.

Ymerdrys 

Pop rye bread into a food processor, blitz it into a crumb and eat it with ymer, a type of sour yoghurt, and fresh fruit.

300g dark rye bread (or whatever you have left over)
2 tsp brown sugar
450g ymer or yoghurt
250g mixed soft berries

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Tear the rye bread into chunks and put it in a food processor along with the sugar and any other flavourings you’ve decided on. Blitz until it resembles rubble.

Spread evenly over some baking paper on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes but give it a jiggle at around 7 minutes, for even cooking, then check again at 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. I like mine still a bit warm. Serve with yoghurt and fruit.

M’smmen 

A lovely flaky, crispy pancake from Morocco. Serve with honey and lashings of culinary argan oil (made from toasted argan kernels)

FOR THE DOUGH

450g plain flour
100g fine semolina
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
1 sachet fast–action yeast
300ml tepid water

FOR FOLDING

Sunflower oil
100g soft butter
100g fine semolina

FOR THE TOPPINGS

Honey
Argan oil (go easy on this)
Pine nuts, lightly toasted
Mixed berries

Put all the dry ingredients for the dough into a bowl or mixer and add the water until the mix forms a slightly sticky dough. Be careful that you don’t add too much water at the start. If you’re using a mixer, knead the dough for about 5 minutes using a dough hook. If you’re working by hand, knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. It should be smooth and elastic.

Split the dough into 10 balls and, using the sunflower oil, lightly coat each one so that it doesn’t dry out. Clear a large work surface to prepare your pancakes and generously oil so that the dough doesn’t stick.

Take a ball of dough and, with oiled hands, press it flat. Working from the middle outwards, keep going until the pancake is so thin you can almost see through it; don’t worry if you make some holes. Scantly spread some butter over and sprinkle some semolina on – this will help the flaky layers form when cooking.

Like folding a letter, fold the left two thirds in and then bring the right side over. You should have a narrow strip now. Bring the top down two thirds of the way and fold the bottom up to match. Now you have a square. Repeat until all the balls are folded.

Preheat a dry pan over a medium–high heat. Starting with the first square, flatten it out until it’s about twice its original size. Fry each pancake for about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown, flipping several times throughout.

Drizzle with honey, argan oil, pine nuts and berries.

All recipes from SymmetryBreakfast: Cook, Love, Share (Bantam Press) by Michael Zee. 

More from the September issue:

More breakfast recipes:

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View the sampler here

Cake recipe: Cardamom banana bread

A twist on a baking classic, this moist and moreish banana cake contains cardamom, which enhances the fruit’s subtle sweetness

CARDAMOM BANANA CAKE
Serves 8

170g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
5 cardamom pods
4 ripe bananas, mashed
170g caster sugar
3 eggs
115g chopped walnuts
350g plain flour
1⁄4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
23⁄4 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp salt
icing sugar to serve (optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/350F and grease a nonstick 25cm square cake tin.
2 Crush the cardamom pods, removing the seeds and discarding the pods. Crush the seeds to release their flavour, add them to the mashed bananas, and set aside.
3 Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric handheld mixer until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat.
4 Next, add the chopped walnuts and mashed banana and fold in. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt over the mixture and gently fold all the ingredients together.
5 Spoon the batter into the buttered cake tin and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out and let cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.

Recipe from The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook by Salma Hage (Phaidon). Photography by Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton

Read more:

From the April issue

Cake recipes

Middle Eastern recipes

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View the sampler here

Recipe: Spanish Tomato Toast

Start the day like you’re in a Spanish café. This simple breakfast makes good use of this month’s glut of tomatoes and extends that summer feeling long after your holiday is over. Very ripe tomatoes and good quality olive oil are a must. 

SPANISH TOMATO TOAST

Serves 2

2 large or 4 small ripe tomatoes (cherry tomatoes won’t work here)
pinch of salt
glug of extra virgin
olive oil
4 slices sourdough bread

1 Using a large box grater, or something similar, carefully grate the juicy tomatoes into a bowl. Grate until you can’t grate any more, avoiding knuckle
scrapes as best you can. 
2 Addapinchofsaltanda good glug of olive oil, and mix together to make a tomato ‘nectar’. Let the flavours combine while you char the bread.
3 Get a griddle pan nice and hot over a high heat, then char the bread for 2–3 minutes on each side. When all the bread is toasted, take it to the table along with your tomato nectar and spoon some over your toast.

Recipe from Breakfast: Morning, Noon & Night by Fern Green (Hardie Grant). Photography by Danielle Wood

For more ways to use a tomato surplus, turn to page 38 of September’s The Simple Things for Lia Leendertz’s tomato relish recipe.

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READ MORE:

How to ripen tomatoes indoors

Breakfast recipes

More from the September issue

Recipe: Homemade 'Nutella'

Kerstin Rodgers is better known as the blogger Ms Marmite Lover. She was a pioneer of the secret tea room. These recipes are from her book MsMarmiteLover’s Secret Tea Party.  

Kerstin says "the thing I don’t like about Nutella is the claggy palm oil sensation in your mouth. Making this at home means you know exactly what’s going into it."

Makes 2 200g jars
200g whole hazelnuts, shelled 
350g milk chocolate, chopped 
2 tbsp groundnut or hazelnut oil 
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp sea salt or vanilla salt

1 Preheat the oven to 180/Fan 160/350F.
2 Place the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for 5–10 mins, watching that they don’t burn. Remove from the oven and carefully rub off the papery skins using a rough tea towel. Leave to cool.
3 Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie or in a bowl in short bursts in the microwave (on full power).
4 Grind the toasted hazelnuts with the remaining ingredients in a blender until they form a paste, adding the melted chocolate. The paste will thicken as it cools. 

Homemade ‘Nutella’ will keep for up to a month in an airtight container in the fridge.

Recipe by Kerstin Rodgers from her book MsMarmiteLover’s Secret Tea Party (Random House, £20). Turn to page 24 of April's The Simple Things for the rest of her high tea menu, including recipes for: 

Rachael’s Secret Tea Room Muffins, Hobbit Seed Cake, Lemon, Almond and Pistachio Cake with Lemon Cream Frosting, Homemade Nutella, and Cupcakes baked in a cup.

 April's The Simple Things is out now - buy, download or subscribe today.

Recipe: Shakshuka

Shakshuka: Tom Hunt's Middle Eastern breakfast, taken from The Natural Cook.

A breakfast of substance - for traditional Brits, at least - involves quite a bit of frying. How lovely, then, that this Middle Eastern-hailing dish poaches its eggs. In spiced passata, no less.

"We serve this in huge pans from my festival cafe," says Tom Hunt, "with hundreds of eggs poaching in the rich tomato sauce."

We'll take four, please.

Shakshuka

Serves 2

For the passata:

600g ripe tomatoes
2 basil leaves

For the shakshuka:

1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
Glug of light olive oil
1 mild green chilli, sliced (optional)
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
4 eggs
3 sprigs of parsley or coriander, roughly chopped

1. To make the passata, wash the tomatoes, then blend to a fine pulp in a food processor. Gently simmer in a wide saucepan for 15-30 minutes, until they have reduced to a thick sauce. Taste them as they reduce, decide when you have reached your desired consistency and flavour, then stop cooking.

2. To store passata, line a sterilised jar with basil, pour in hot passata and seal.

3. Gently fry the onion with the cumin and paprika in the light olive oil, adding a pinch of salt and half the chilli for ten minutes until soft. Add the garlic and fry for a further five minutes.

4. Add 300g passata and simmer for 10 minutes. If the sauce becomes too dry, add a little water.

5. When you're ready to eat, make four hollows in the sauce and crack in the eggs. Cover with a lid and simmer for five minutes for soft yolks, ten minutes for hard. Serve, sprinkled with the herbs and a little pepper, on your favourite toast. Sprinkle with the rest of the chilli.

Taken from the book The Natural Cook by Tom Hunt.

Yoghurt for breakfast

Love yoghurt? You can't beat it for a breakfast treat

Turn to page 110 of May's The Simple Things for a recipe to make your own thick and creamy yoghurt. But how do you eat yours?

Classic Greek

Top with dark forest honey for a true taste of Greece. Add a handful of almonds for added crunch.

Bircher

Use your homemade yoghurt as a base for a Bircher breakfast - oats soaked overnight with yoghurt, juice, and grated apple.

Berries and granola

A bowlful of yoghurt topped with a handful of granola and fresh berries is a great way to start the day, and keeps you full 'til lunchtime.

Winter fruit

Yoghurt is a good option, even in winter. No berries? No worries - try tinned prunes or preserved apricots instead.

How do you eat yours? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook.

Recipe: Fluffy blueberry pancakes for Father's Day

Home cook, photographer and mother Kat Molesworth from Housewife Confidential has stopped by to share a special recipe suitable for small hands to make and perfect for sharing with the whole family this Father's Day.

Days of whispered planning, secret making and dreaming of the special breakfast – “We will make pancakes, won’t we Mama?” They rush down the stairs in their pyjamas, pulling open the fridge and jumping up and down like monkeys. Everyone takes a turn at adding ingredients, mixing and checking the blueberries taste good (they do). Then the air fills with a comforting buttery sizzle as the first pancakes plop into the pan. We stack them on a plate, their jammy berries oozing and delicious and glug the maple syrup on top. Cards and presents, coffee and the pancakes all troop up the stairs to where Papa waits.

This is the morning when a little more time is taken, to say thank you, to cuddle and to nourish. Let’s take a walk, go slowly, hold hands and remember why this love, pure and simple, is the best.

Happy Father’s Day!

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Fluffy Blueberry Pancakes

135g plain flour

½ tbsp. caster sugar

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

30g butter, melted and cooled slightly

250ml milk

1 egg

Method:

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- Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat and set aside to cool. - Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. - Lightly whisk the milk and egg together then pour the melted butter in and whisk again. - Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk to combine only. You will have a lumpy batter, over whisking will activate the gluten and make your pancakes tough. - Rub a large frying pan with butter or oil and use a small ladle to drop the batter onto the pan over a medium heat. You should be able to fit several in at a time depending on the size of your pan. - As they begin to cook drop blueberries into the surface of each pancake. - Cook for 1 – 2 minutes on each side until they are just done – you should see little holes form on the surface and they should be lightly browned. - Serve hot with a generous glug of maple syrup!

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If you would like to learn to take beautiful photographs like Kat, visit her online film and photography school Capturing Childhood their Manual Overdrive  course begins today and there are gift certificates available for all of the online courses. All photography © Kat Molesworth

Indulge in some brioche French toast

The blogosphere is jam-packed full of healthy, delicious, nutrient-filled breakfast ideas. So why can’t we get Sunday Suppers’ ridiculously indulgent recipe for brioche French toast out of our minds?

The ingredients list includes (deep breath) crème fraiche, mascarpone, marmalade, and six whole eggs. Enough to send anyone into an immediate food coma, which isn’t ideal if the clock has yet to even strike noon.

We’re saving this recipe up for a special occasion, or a lazy Sunday (whichever comes first), and planning a light lunch that day!