Sunday 3 June 2012

Brunch & Co Event #10 - Yasmin's Surprise Birthday Brunch

Photo by Jen

On Her Majesty's Service, Queen Elizabeth II and Brunch & Co warmly welcomed 10 lovely ladies to a surprise Jubilee party to celebrate Yasmin's birthday over the weekend.  The brunch was arranged with military precision by Yasmin's wonderful husband Shams. Boyfriends & Husbands take note - the bar has been raised!!
Photo by Jen

Our brunch was extra special today as we had my sister Jen over from Melbourne to help out - she is a true gourmet foodie and much more talented in the kitchen than me, so it was wonderful to have her working her magic on all the dishes. Thank you Jen!

Photo by Jen

To start, we served a special amuse bouche of Heston Blumenthal's mushroom soup.  Velvety smooth and enhanced with a powder of crushed porcini & shiitake mushrooms made by Jen.  Delish! We served this in our special vintage tea cups and saucers to bring a more British feel to our Jubilee Brunch.

Photo by Jen

For our starter, we served organic free range soft boiled eggs (hand carried from Australia by Jen especially for Brunch & Co) with gruyere cheese melted sourdough toast soldiers and spears of organic Nepalese asparagus. We also served this with a little pinch of pistachio dukkah for our guests to sprinkle on their eggs once cracked open.

Photo by Jen
Photo by Jen - oozy, cheesey goodness!

For our main course, we prepared Yotam Ottolenghi's fluffy "green" pancakes made with lots of spinach, spring onions & green chillies!  Here are a few cooking - sooo good!

Photo by Jen

We served these with golden pan fried cubes of haloumi cheese....

Photo by Jen

...smoked salmon, lime & chilli butter and a salsa made with organic Nepalese tomatoes, cucumber, red onion tossed in a zingy dressing.



After our obligatory seat swap/tummy stretching exercise, our lovely guests tucked into a palate cleanser of lychee & coconut sorbet. We then had a very special birthday cake handmade by one of the very talented guests, Judy. As Yasmin is a keen photographer, the red velvet cake featured an SLR camera made with fondant & edible paint!! Totally amazing!!

Photo by Jen

For dessert, we served a deconstructed apple & rhubarb crumble consisting of stewed apples with a hint of rhubarb, crispy flaked almond crumble & homemade calvados (apple liqueur) ice cream. We made the crumble separately and served it in our little tea cups to ensure it stayed extra crispy! I think we pushed the alcohol content to the limit with the ice cream - I was worried I had added too much for it to freeze properly but it turned out creamy, smooth & deliciously calvadosy!

Photo by Jen

Well, another 10 lovely guests happily fed from the Brunch & Co kitchen. We are so glad to have been part of the surprise birthday celebration for Yasmin, it was a real pleasure.

Until next time, happy brunching!

Cheers,
Louise, Mark & Jen