e cooks :: brioche french toast

It's about time for another E cooks episode! Today, it's one of my favourite ever dishes - good old French toast. Except it's not just a piece of bread dipped in egg and milk. Of course not, this is E we are talking about! Something to know about my husband: he is an amateur chef, who takes cooking very seriously. Like, "can't make a pasta dish in less than 2 hours" seriously. What can I say? He likes to make life difficult for himself.

But who am I to complain when the result is this good? Slices of brioche, dipped in Crème Anglaise and pan fried to perfection. Not too shabby at all.

His tip for the Crème Anglaise (which is the tricky part) is to get the consistency right. You have to be patient and cook it on very low heat, and if you overcook it then it begins to separate and becomes a big fat disaster. His words. 

If you're not into this whole fancy cream thing, even just using good quality brioche instead of baguette or toast bread would make a difference - it's so decadent and buttery and completely luxurious. Pretty much perfect for this time of year!

I can attest to the fact that the extra effort will be worth it though, so if you want to take on the challenge, the recipe is below all the deliciousness. Feast your eyes on this.

Recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon

Ingredients {for the Crème Anglaise}

1 cup double cream

1 cup milk

7 tablespoons sugar

1 vanilla bean, split

5 large egg yolks

To make:

1. Combine cream, milk & 4 tbsp sugar in a large saucepan. Add the seeds from one half of the vanilla pod. 

2. Bring to simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove pan from heat, cover, let sit for 30 minutes.

3. Place a metal bowl in an ice bath, where the custard will go once it's ready. Reheat the cream mixture until warm.

4. Whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar until colour lightens. Whisking constantly, gradually add the hot cream mixture into the eggs. 

5. Return mixture to saucepan, and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. If you run a finger down the back of the stirring spoon and the mixture stays put on either side of the line and doesn't run, it's the right consistency.

6. Pour the custard into the bowl in the ice bath, and let it cool, stirring occasionally.

Ingredients {for the French toast}

1 1/2 cups Crème Anglaise

4 thick (3/4 inch) slices Brioche

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Icing sugar (optional)

Berries (optional)

To make:

1. Pour the Crème Anglaise into a baking tray, deep enough for one slice of Brioche. 

2. Soak the slices on one side, and then the other. 

3. Cook over medium heat on both sides, about 4-5 minutes each.

4. Serve with fruit, jam, maple syrup, icing sugar - whatever you like.

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healthy chia seed pancakes

Although I love to eat out and throw calorie-counting out of the window a lot of the time, I do believe that a good balance of healthy and indulgent food is what makes me feel the best. Life isn't always so helpful in that regard - sometimes things get busy and I end up resorting to less than ideal choices, and not bothering to prepare healthy meals for myself.

But I try to remind myself that the extra effort is small in comparison to the health and happiness benefits, and it's worth it every time! Why is it so easy to forget that?
Anyway, so you know that I am a big fan of brunches. And while usually, brunch = indulgence in my opinion, if you feel your healthier habits slipping but still want to have that weekend treat, this is the recipe for you!

C and I are forever grossing out our partners with our passion for the "hippie" alternatives to certain ingredients - you know, the kind of things you see in your local health food store. E, being French, is horrified at the idea of anything replacing dairy - "What do you mean, Almond milk?! Milk that isn't milk isn't milk!!" - and so you can imagine his reaction to the weird looking chia seeds, that gel up to a slightly odd consistency.
If you're remotely interested in popular health trends, you'll know what chia seeds are. They're full of protein, fibre, omega-3 fats - all that good stuff. When mixed with water, they become a jelly-like form that you can use to replace eggs, for example, as well as lots of other uses. In this recipe, they do replace one egg, but their main purpose is for the addition of all those nutrients.

These pancakes are a recipe from C, and since she's made them for me a few times and I loved them, I asked her for the recipe. When I made them the first time and sent her a photo, she said, "Are they worth a blog post?" Well lovely, yes they are!
They are extremely filling, can be topped with anything your heart desires, easy to make and very customisable. I made them with wholemeal spelt flour, and they are definitely not the fluffy american pancakes nor the thin ones you might have on Shrove Tuesday, but they are delicious nonetheless. 

Ingredients (3-4 servings): 300g wholemeal flour (I use spelt) 1 large egg 2 large tablespoons (25g) chia seeds, mixed with 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey about 2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or regular milk, soy milk, whatever you fancy) toppings of choice
To make: 1) Mix the chia seeds with the water, leave for a few minutes to gel up. 2) Just to make life easier, sieve the flour into a bowl so you avoid lumps later. 3) Mix in the egg, chia seeds, agave nectar, and gradually add the milk so you get a fairly thin consistency. 4) Cook them as you would normal pancakes - with a bit of (real, not margarine) butter on the pan. A bit of butter never hurt anyone!  5) Top them with whatever you like. If the pancakes are healthy, bacon is justified... 

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nopi

Everyone knows about Ottolenghi and his ever-growing popularity with his restaurants and delicatessens in London. Slap on the wrist for me, because until this day, I had never ventured into any of his establishments. I really have no idea why.

Anyway, my love for brunch is no secret, and this time round we finally booked a table for the Ottolenghi experience at Nopi.

Firstly, it already gets two thumbs up from me for not being a no-reservations place, a trend that seems to be on fire in London lately.

Secondly, the decor. It's swish but not stuffy, modern but not cold, elegant but with an edge. The white and gold with wooden furniture - it completely won me over.

Onto the main event.

Their breakfast/brunch menu is not extensive, but certainly interesting. I went for the Shakshuka - braised eggs, piquant tomato sauce and smoked labneh (a kind of cheese), E went for the sausage focaccia sandwich with tomato chutney, and we shared the black rice with mango and banana out of curiosity.

My braised eggs were perfectly booked, the tomato sauce so flavourful and fresh, with sticks of grilled bread for dipping. E's sausages were delicious, and the black rice was fascinating - sweetened with maple syrup and coconut milk, it was unusual and mild in taste, a lovely palate cleanser after the savoury dishes.

Honestly, I can't say a bad thing about this place! I do know that their lunch and dinner menus require a slightly larger budget, so in comparison to that I thought this was very reasonably priced for generous portions.

It's the perfect place if you want something a little different to your standard eggs benedict, with their unique offerings and distinctive flavours. I kind of want to go back and try everything on their menu now, but first, I really should visit the other Ottolenghi branches.

It's ideally located in a little street in Soho, and did I mention you can make reservations? Do it.

the breakfast club

This place is no secret.

Made pretty obvious by the sizeable queue…

… that went around the block.

When my sister, her friend J and I started queueing at 11:15 on a Saturday morning, we didn't realise quite how long the wait would be - if we had, we probably wouldn't have braved it. Ignorance was bliss in this case, because we only got inside an hour and a half later. That's dedication.

The last time I went there was my first time, and we got there at a funny time on a weekend - around 3/4pm - so we barely had to queue. This was a different experience all together, but it did make the food taste that much better once we were finally given our well-deserved brunch.

As you can see, it was quite the spread. We ordered the Full Monty (full English), pancakes with bacon, and french toast with apples and cinnamon. Although everything was delicious, we unanimously agreed that the pancakes were the stars of the show - it was confirmed that the first I tried them here wasn't a fluke.

We did ourselves proud -

Obviously, queueing for an hour and a half is for loonies, so I would suggest you go at an obscure time or on a weekday at least. If you can face the long queue though, it will be worth it - it'll be like running a marathon or giving birth. You'll forget the pain once it's done (or so I'm told…).

raoul's

Another Sunday, another brunch date. - this time it was a double one, with our lovely friends C & J.

We decided to try somewhere new to us - Raoul's.

It's a stylish, popular little place, with a deli next door full of more gourmet goods, and the restaurant itself was pretty busy given that it was a Sunday.

The menu is extensive, and covers a lot of different dishes from the more traditional brunch options to other, more unique ideas. It was quite hard to choose since everything sounded so good!

In the end, I went for the toasted crumpets with poached eggs, sweetcorn and chorizo, which sounded like just the thing for a savoury breakfast lover like me.

Seriously delicious. Their eggs are especially fresh and had bright orange yolks, which is always a good sign. The others enjoyed their dishes as well, I caught a sneaky shot of C's eggs benedict -

J, the bottomless pit who enviably eats a ton and can't gain any weight, decided to go for french toast after his eggs royale. We all laughed at him, but when it came, we were basically fighting over it and trying to steal bites…

So E ordered his own, and C and I ordered one to share. How could we resist?

It was definitely worth every bite - it was flavoured with a  bit of orange with was lovely, and smothered in maple syrup it was the perfect weekend treat.

We always love hanging out with these two, the food was great but the company even better. And that's saying something, because that french toast was delectable.

They have branches in Hammersmith, Notting Hill and Maida Vale - trust me and go, it's a good one.

bill's

Chain restaurants can get mixed reputations in London, but there are definitely a few that manage to boast the personality and quality of a one-of-a-kind place.

I hadn't tried Bill's before, despite it rapidly popping up on every corner of the city. They just landed in my area, so last weekend we promptly went over for an indulgent breakfast.

There is something so luxurious about going out for breakfast, probably because it's very rare (at least for me). Perfect for a Sunday morning!

The place has a relaxed, diner slash delicatessen vibe, and they also had the tiniest salt & pepper shakers known to man.

Since I was feeling that familiar dread of a cold coming on, I ordered a carrot, orange & ginger juice to kick my immune system into gear. Very fresh, though I could have had even more ginger to spice it up a little.

Quite predictably, I chose the Eggs Royale (I am crazy about smoked salmon), and E chose the Bill's breakfast. We clearly weren't going the healthy route…

My eggs were poached to perfection which, as we all know, is no easy feat. E was very happy with his breakfast as well (neither of us knew what bubble & squeak was until we looked it up when we saw it on the menu. how did that weird name come about?), and raved especially about the mushrooms.

Their large selection of desserts definitely did not escape our eyes - we (or rather, I) went for the lemon drizzle cake, and it was one of the best I've had.

Topped with a big dollop of mascarpone, I was full to the brim and rolled myself home.

I've heard only good things about their lunch and dinner menus, so I hope that one of these days we will be popping in again to try out their other dishes - so far, so delicious.