Family brunch

My family got together for brunch last month at Jac’s and my home. It was our usual east meets west home-cooked potluck feast.

While Jac prepared the trimmings to accompany my mum’s rice porridge, I made the mini egg and bacon pies under Jac’s direction. I had the egg and bacon mix all ready and was buttering the mini muffin pans when Juji and Jay turned up. so while Jay helped set up the coffee and tea station and make us all our first cuppa, Juji helped me cut puff pastry and line the trays ready for the mix to be poured in.

Through my vigorous mixing I must’ve whipped a bit of air into the egg and bacon mix, for the first lot of pies puffed up grandly like soufflés.

We don’t usually cook with recipes, but this one’s so easy I wrote it down to share with you.

Recipe: Mini egg and bacon pies

(Makes roughly 36 – using mini muffin pans)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 200g diced bacon
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup grated Tasty cheese
• salt and pepper
• frozen puff pastry

Method

1. Turn on oven and set to 220C
2. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl or jug and mix well
3. Butter or non-stick spray muffin trays
4. Line with frozen puff pastry
5. Pour mixture into each pastry-lined muffin hole – careful not to overfill as they will expand slightly when cooked. Fill to around 3/4 full
6. Cook in oven for 15 minutes or until golden-brown
7. Remove while still warm and serve. They’re delicious eaten cold too, great for a snack, picnic or school lunch box

Juji brought a trio of sausages – smoked kransky and chorizo from Dubrovnik Butchers in Bayswater and pork and sage chipolatas from Mondo Butchers in Inglewood.

She served them with sauerkraut and a jar of her own homemade caramelised onion jam.

I’d asked Mum if she could cook up a batch of rice porridge (congee). She turned up with a large pot of chicken rice porridge.
“I hope it isn’t too meaty,” she said. “There’s a whole chicken in there.”
“Too meaty?” We ‘kids’ scoffed – “No such thing for this family!”

So that Mum didn’t have to worry about anything other than the porridge, Jac said she’d be responsible for all the trimmings. The yow char kway (Chinese fried crullers) and deep-fried shallots came from the Asian grocery, but the rest were all freshly prepared by Jac that morning – coriander, spring onion, ginger and fried garlic. Add soy sauce and sesame oil and we were all ready to start eating.

After all the savoury feasting, it was time for something sweet. Out came another one of my sister CW’s enormous fruit platters, with rockmelon, orange, kiwifruit, papaya, watermelon, strawberries and cherries. The girls absolutely love the strawberries and cherries. Me, I’m a pig for papaya.

Caleb, on the other hand, enjoyed a bit of everything with a blue car thrown in.

We finished the meal with chocolate tart made by my sister-in-law Angela, served with whipped cream and raspberries.

See that teapot? In less than a week, Truffle the kitten knocked it onto the tiled floor, smashing it to bits. Read about the train of Truffle’s destruction in the August edition of TFP’s e-newsletter.

After brunch, play time.

What does your family like for brunch?

Chefs of the Margaret River Competition

Australian readers, don’t forget to enter for your chance to win a copy of Chefs of the Margaret River Region (valued at $55) and a $50 breakfast voucher for Morries Anytime. Entries close 12 August. Enter competition

TFP will be away 1-12 August
I will eating and photographing my way around Cambodia and Vietnam. While I’m away, I may not have regular internet access, so I may be ‘quieter’ than normal on Facebook and Twitter, and my email replies and moderation of your comments may take a little longer than usual. Please don’t worry if your comment takes a while to appear. I’m looking forward to sharing my adventures with you when I return.

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