New Year’s Day Brunch

Last month I designed a New Years Brunch menu for a photo shoot collaboration with Bella Signature Design, one of Seattle’s top wedding designers, Paloma’s Nest, crafter of modern heirlooms and Momental Designs, creator of exquisite handmade invitations and stationery:

Included are recipes that represented my 2009; our month in Spain; weekends at the beach cottage near the cranberry bogs, crabbing from our dock, smoking salmon for the first time.  The theme is locally grown/caught with a cranberry spin:

New Year’s Day Brunch

Welcome Drink: 

Cranberry Bellini

Appetizers:

Blini with home-smoked salmon and lemon crème fraiche

Buffet:

Winter Citrus salad

Fresh Dungeness Crab Benedict on brioche with basil infused olive oil

steamed asparagus

Spanish Tortilla; thinly sliced locally grown potatoes tossed with organic eggs and Spanish seasonings

Cranberry  Orange muffins

Dessert:

Profiteroles with cranberry compote and chocolate sauce.

Cava (Spanish Champagne)

Recipes for blini, tortilla, cranberry orange muffins are in previous posts.

Most of these foods can be made in advance and assembled just before guests arrive.

To make a cranberry Bellini simply add pureed sweetened cranberries (cranberry compote) or a teaspoon of cranberry sauce to a glass of champagne. 

The winter citrus is grapefruit nearly frozen and served with sea salt and home grown mint:  Slice a pink grapefruit in half; using a sharp knife cut each segment from the rind but leave whole; then place in the freezer for 45 minutes.  Remove from freezer and sprinkle with flaky sea salt and garnish with mint leaves.  Serve immediately or place on ice bed in buffet.

Recipes abound for eggs Benedict.  Make your favorite hollandaise and make or buy brioche (I prefer them to English muffins) and substitute crab for ham.  Drizzle olive oil infused with basil around the plate.  Serve hot or place crab topped brioche in heated dish on buffet with hollandaise and olive oil in pitchers nearby. Remember to toast the brioche first and heat the hollandaise pitcher with warm water before pouring in the hollandaise, this will keep it warm longer.

Profiteroles…Cream puffs (pate choux) filled with vanilla ice cream then drizzled with chocolate sauce.  Scoop ice cream in advance; form them into nice round balls and return to freezer.  When it’s time for dessert let your guests assemble their own and pass warmed chocolate sauce (can be as simple as Hershey’s or as exotic as ganache).

There…an elegant winter buffet suitable for an anniversary party, holiday brunch or just for you.

Special thanks for Daniela of Bella Signature Design for including Bainbridge Style in her New Year’s Day Photo Shoot.  Click on her link for more New Year’s Brunch photos and samples of Paloma’s Nest and Momental Design’s work (gorgeous stuff, all).  Photo credit to the fabulously talented UK photographer Philip Meadows.