Get Christmas Crackin'
Recipes: Caramelized-Onion Frittata, Pumpkin Frittata, and Lobster Scrambled Eggs
Source: Special to The Globe And Mail; December 23, 2000
From: Jennie Punter

Breakfast may be the last thing on your mind as you plan for the holiday feast, but throwing together a suitably festive meal to start the big day doesn't have to be difficult

Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day. It may be no different during the holidays. When work ceases to beckon, the first meal of a festive day is often brunch, by definition a relaxing occasion and, for many, a traditional feast. If you're having guests over for dinner, brunch can be the calm before the storm, or even a low-pressure midweek or New Year's Day party for friends and family unable to squeeze around the turkey. And for those who celebrate their big feast day at the homes of others, brunch with immediate family can be a refreshingly intimate and peaceful celebration.

Creating a fabulous brunch need not involve the same elaborate preparation as a traditional turkey with fixings. If you're keeping it simple this season -- and who these days can't use a little simplicity? -- but still want to offer something special, think of adding a few decadent little twists to basic breakfast staples. All you need is to add a line or two to your final shopping list and, perhaps, do a little chopping the night before.

"Brunch is wonderfully decadent," said Claire Stubbs of Toronto's Mildred Pierce restaurant, known for its brunches. "It's the one meal where it's acceptable to drink alcohol in the morning, put whipped cream in your coffee and eat eggs and pork together." Stubbs says buttermilk pancakes are a simple, elegant solution for a large morning crowd. Easy to make from scratch, doubled or tripled depending on your guest list, drizzled with real maple syrup and accompanied by fresh fruit, pancakes can also be a enjoyable team effort as you hand over the spatula at the flipping station." Another menu item we came up with recently is a new twist on eggs in a nest," said Stubbs, who is developing a brunch cookbook (due in 2002) with her Mildred Pierce colleagues. "You take an individual brioche, carefully slice off the little hat on top, scoop it out and put in poached eggs. You can put smoked salmon around the edges, pour a little bit of béarnaise sauce over the eggs and some caviar on top and then put the hat back on." (The béarnaise sauce is made by reducing vinegar, wine, tarragon and shallots in a pan and finishing the thickened mixture with egg yolks and butter.)At Il Sogno, a new Italian restaurant in Calgary, chef Giuseppe Di Gennaro turns traditional light supper dishes from his native Naples into simple, flavor-packed items for the Sunday brunch menu. Uova al Purgatorio, "eggs of purgatory," is typically a dish of eggs simmered in a tomato sauce with hot red-pepper flakes. Di Gennaro uses a cherry-tomato sauce and tosses in thin strips or pieces of Italian cappicola ham and mozzarella cheese, then bakes it in the oven in individual serving dishes and presents the portions over grilled bread.

Okay, purgatory might not be the most fitting image on Christmas morning, but you can do many simple, festive things with another Mediterranean breakfast specialty, frittata. "We also feature four different sorts of frittata, which is something that can easily be made for more than one person," said Patricia Koyich, Di Gennaro's partner, translator and manager of Il Sogno. Frittata, the Italian version of the omelet in which the ingredients are cooked with the egg mixture rather than hidden inside as a stuffing, can be made to fit your largest frying pan and served in wedge-shaped slices, like a flat pie. For flavor and a beautiful appearance, three is the magic number when choosing ingredients. Koyich suggests, for instance, a frittata with zucchini, basil and mild provolone cheese, and another with baby spinach, pancetta ham and grated parmesan. And, of course, sliced green and red peppers would give your frittata holiday color.

John Taylor, executive chef and proprietor of Domus Cafe, a popular brunch destination in Ottawa, brings the flavors from his native New Brunswick home to the brunch table. "Something that varies on a tradition in my family is lobster and scrambled eggs," he said. "You can use canned lobster, but it's much better with fresh lobster, cooked at the fishmonger. You can even have them shell it for you, which you fold into scrambled eggs at the last minute." Taylor says fresh truffles, if you can afford and find them, are in season and wonderful with scrambled eggs. "They have a very delicate flavor, and so you just shave them over the top right before serving."

For a variation on the familiar smoked-salmon, cream cheese and bagels brunch, Taylor suggests trying smoked trout or smoked sturgeon, folding some roasted red-pepper purée into the cream cheese and serving on fresh brioche from your local bakery. Or, to save a trip to the bakery, buy bagels a day or two before and freeze them.

"If you have phyllo or puff pastry in the freezer, you can put anything inside, like sautéed mushrooms or wilted spinach, cooked lobster or shrimp," he said. "You roll it up a few layers thick, brush the top with melted butter and throw it in the oven. When it's done, cut the phyllo roll on the bias and you have dozens of attractive, tasty morsels to accompany your main dish."

Sparkling wine is not only the most palatable and festive alcoholic beverage at brunch, it also happens to be among the few drinks that match well with eggs. Il Sogno's Koyich suggests the traditional Italian brunch cocktails, the Bellini, made with champagne (or sparkling wine) and fresh peach purée. She says you can make a similar drink with ready-made pear, apricot or peach nectar, found in small bottles at many Italian food stores, which you pour over ice. "You can go easy on the champagne, and it still explodes with flavor."

---

CARAMELIZED-ONION FRITTATA
Servings: 4-6

This simple recipe, adapted from The New Cook by Donna Hay (Whitecap, 1997), can be modified with added ingredients, as in the variations at bottom.

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
3 onions, sliced
8 eggs
3/4 cup cream or milk
Cracked black pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated aged cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon thyme leaves or 1/4 tablespoon dried thyme

Place butter and oil in a 9-inch nonstick frying pan over low heat and cook until butter has melted. Add onions to pan.Cook onions, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes or until onions are golden brown, soft and caramelized.

Place eggs, cream and pepper in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour egg mixture over onions in the frying pan and sprinkle with cheese and thyme. Cook frittata for five to six minutes or until it is almost set.

To finish cooking, place frittata under a preheated hot grill for one minute. Cut it into wedges and serve on hot buttered toast or with a spicy chutney.

Variations

PUMPKIN FRITTATA:
Add 1/2 cup mashed, cooked pumpkin or sweet potato when whisking eggs. Blue cheese and potato frittata: When onions have cooked in the pan, sprinkle one cup cooked cubed potato over them. Pour in egg mixture and sprinkle blue cheese instead of cheddar over eggs.

---

LOBSTER SCRAMBLED EGGS
Servings: 6

This recipe, adapted from Domus Cafe in Ottawa, is a simple but decadent way to kick off a holiday morning. Lobster is well-priced, too, thanks to a bumper season. All of the steps can be prepared the night before and the dish assembled the next day in 15 to 20 minutes. Most fishmongers will cook the lobster for you if you ask. Domus chef-operator John Taylor serves the eggs with wedges of fried potato rosti.

3 (1 1/2-pound each) live Atlantic lobster (or have your fishmonger cook it for you)
1 pound of double-smoked bacon (or single-smoked)
4 large russet potatoes, peeled and reserved in water and kept in refrigerator
1 bunch fresh chives
1 bunch fresh thyme
1 dozen fresh eggs
1/4 cup 35-per-cent whipping cream (optional)
Fresh baby greens (preferably mustard cress or baby arugula, available at specialty food shops)
Fresh unsalted butter
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Day-before steps:
Remove all the tail and claw meat from the lobster (try to keep the claw meat in one piece). Wash tail meat clean of any black roe and remove intestinal tract. Place in sealed container and reserve for next morning.

Same-day steps:
Cook bacon until crisp, then remove to paper towel to drain and cool. When cool, crumble into bacon-bit-size pieces.

Cut lobster tail meat into small dices. Reserve whole claws for garnish, if desired.

Crack eggs into bowl and add optional cream if using. Do not beat eggs until you are ready to cook them.

Heat non-stick frying pan and add one to two tablespoons of butter. Let the butter melt slightly and add beaten eggs. Scramble the eggs, stirring constantly. Toward about the last 30 seconds of cooking, add half the sliced chives and the lobster tail meat. Remove from heat and let stand to warm the lobster through. The eggs should still be slightly runny.

Warm the lobster claws in two tablespoons of butter and four cups of water with a little salt and pepper. Do not let them boil or the meat will become tough.

Spoon the egg mixture evenly on each plate and sprinkle with bacon bits and fresh sliced chives. Top with greens. Arrange one lobster claw on each plate.

Add spoonful of homemade or store-bought chutney on each plate and drizzle the eggs with some of the chutney juice. Garnish each plate with two long chives.