I love hosting brunch parties, especially when we delegate most of the food out to guests. It's not a lot of work, it includes my favorite foods, and everyone goes home before 2 p.m. and then you still have the whole day to get on with your life. You can't bank on all of your guests waking up early to cook something, but it usually works out where most everything can be prepared in advance. Like so:
Host -- some sort of egg or otherwise savory main dish (see below).
Host -- coffee, tea, cream, sugar.
Host -- bacon or other meat (if you're into that). Or you can delegate that out, but since it requires reserving time in the oven or stove it's probably easiest to just do yourself.
Guest who is generally a great cook -- potato dish of choice.
Guest who is a great baker -- baked-good of choice.
Guest who loves food but is short on time -- fruit.
Guest who parties late and may or may not arrive on time -- pastries from the bakery near their house.
Guest who parties late but will likely show up on time anyway -- mimosas, or our favorite, pineapple juice and hot pepper infused vodka.
Other guests -- More baked goods. Maybe another vegetable if they are inspired? It's surprisingly hard to fail at brunch.
My current go-to savory main dish is a strata. It comes together easily the evening before, and builds an amazing texture overnight. Not too many ingredients, and not too many dishes to wash either.
Adapted slightly from The New Best Recipe by Cooks Illustrated.
Serves 6-10. 6 if it's like, a main dish, 10 if there is a lot of other food and people will only take a small piece.
Supplies
8 x 11 or 8-inch square baking dish, or something about that size.
Large sauce pan with high sides, or medium skillet
Medium mixing bowl
2-cup liquid measure
Cheese grater (that one from Ikea that grates right into tupperware is perfect here, but any will do)
Measuring spoons
Knife & cutting board
Stirring implements of choice
Ingredients
8-10 slices French or Italian loaf bread (doesn't need to be highest quality)
5 tablespoons butter
4 medium shallots, minced
10ish ounces fresh spinach, stems removed, washed and dried
salt and pepper
1/2 cup medium-dry white wine (just get something inexpensive that's not obviously super sweet)
6 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 large eggs
1 3/4 cups half-and-half
1. You need the bread to be a little stale. Easiest is to slice it and leave it out on the counter overnight. If you don't have time for that, you can also stick the slices in the oven for 40 minutes at 225 degrees, flipping them halfway through. This is the most difficult step for me, because I'm not usually so ahead of the game. Here's a sample schedule: Buy bread on Friday. Leave out overnight. Make strata on Saturday night. Bake Sunday morning.
2. Butter one side of each slice of bread.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté for about 3 minutes until fragrant and translucent.
4. Add spinach and cook until it is bright green and just wilted. Depending on the capacity of your pan, you may not be able to get all of your spinach in at once without it cascading all over the place. That's okay, you can start with a little and add more as it cooks down, but try to go as fast as you can so the spinach doesn't get super cooked. You don't want a lot of liquid either.
5. Add a few generous shakes of salt and pepper, mix to combine and set aside in the medium bowl.
6. Add wine to skillet, increase the heat to medium-high, and reduce by half. About 2 minutes. Then pour it back into the liquid measure.
7. Butter the baking dish. Now it's time to build some layers! Divide all the non-liquid ingredients in half (in your mind). Then place in the dish in this order:
Bottom: One layer of bread
One layer of spinach
One layer of cheese
Second layer of bread
Second layer of spinach
Top: Second layer of cheese (set about half a cup aside, though)
8. Whisk the eggs in the medium bowl. Add the wine, half-and-half, a teaspoon of salt, a few shakes of pepper, and whisk to combine.
9. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the strata. Be careful not to spill a bunch of it on the floor like I did the first time (but if you do lose some liquid keep going, it will still turn out okay).
10. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight. Cooks Illustrated also recommends placing some heavy bags of flour or sugar on top to weight it down. This makes a more uniform consistency and encourages the bread to soak up the liquid evenly, but it's still tasty if you don't do this.
11. In the morning, take the strata out of the fridge and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and adjust rack to middle position.
12. Uncover the strata and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top.
13. Bake until edges and center are a little puffy and edges have pulled away slightly from the side of the dish. About 50-55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes and then serve.
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