Serious Eats: Recipes
Kid-Friendly Mother's Day Brunch
If you're wondering how to get the kids off your hands while you fix Mother's Day brunch this weekend, why not try making them your sous chefs? It'll be fun for them, it'll be less work for you, and Mom will be delighted. And if anything goes wrong, no one will think it's your fault.
Here's a possible menu of dishes that are deliciously uncomplicated to make and involve child-friendly steps like mixing and grating. (For safety's sake, just be sure to carefully supervise your kids and leave the grating and any chopping to your older children.)
Oatmeal Breakfast Bread
Doesn't require kneading, but provides lots of opportunities for kids to mix ingredients by hand and stir the batter.
- serves 12 -
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
Ingredients
For the topping:
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For the bread:
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup flavorless oil, such as canola or safflower
1/4 cup buttermilk or whole milk
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup diced dried figs, apples, or apricots or moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)
1 cup old-fashioned oats
Procedure
1. Center a rack in oven; preheat to 350°F. Butter 9-by-5-inch loaf pan, dust with flour, and tap out excess. Put pan on a baking sheet.
2. Make the topping: In a small bowl, use your fingers to toss together the sugar, nuts, and cinnamon until evenly mix. Set aside.
3. Make the bread: Whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, and buttermilk until well blended.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Remove 1/2 teaspoon of mix; toss it with the fruit to coat. Set aside. Stir the oats into the bowl. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry, and, using a large rubber spatula, stir just until everything is evenly moistened. Don't overdo the mixing. Scatter the dried fruit over batter and stir it to blend. Scrape batter into pan; sprinkle over topping, tamping it down lightly with fingers so it sticks.
5. Bake 55 to 65 minutes, or until the bread is browned and a thin knife inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer bread to a cooling rack for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of pan and unmold. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
Zucchini Fritters
A happy compromise between the "Eat your veggies" camp and the "I want pancakes" camp. Kids can help make these by grating the vegetables—but for safety's sake, let your older children do the grating.
- serves 4 -
Adapted from Mark Bittman's version.
Ingredients
About 2 pounds zucchini, eggplant, or turnips, peeled if necessary and grated
1/2 onion, peeled and grated
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup flour or plain bread crumbs, more as needed
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 to 4 tablespoons butter or extra virgin olive oil
Procedure
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl except butter or olive oil. The mixture should be fairly loose but not iquid; add more flour or bread crumbs if necessary.
2. Put butter or oil in a large skillet and turn heat to medium-high. When the oil is hot, put generous spoonfuls of batter in the pan. Cook, flipping once, until nicely browned on both sides - 10 to 15 minutes total.
3. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Bacon and Egg Pie
This fairly simple frittata might be more of an adult task, though kids can still arrange the ingredients in the pie plate once everything is cooked. The recipe is from Martha Stewart, who seems like she'd know what to make for Mother's Day brunch (though if you're still hankering to take advantage of ramp season, there's always this recipe.)
- serves 6 -
Adapted from the The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics.
Ingredients
Unsalted butter, for pie plate
8 ounces thickly sliced bacon
4 ounces small mushrooms, wiped clean, quarted
1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced
3 ounces soft goat cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
5 large eggs
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Generously butter a 10-inch glass pie plate. Cook the bacon in a large skillet until very crisp. Remove; drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat from the skillet.
2. Return the skillet to medium-high heat; add the mushrooms. Cook until well browned, about 4 minutes. Remove from the skillet; spread the mushrooms in a prepared pie plate. Crumble the bacon; arrange over the mushrooms, along with the pepper, cheeses, and thyme.
3. Beat the eggs and cream in a large bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the bacon-vegetable mixture. Bake until the egg pie is set and deep golden brown, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven, and place on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Slice into wedges, and serve warm or at room temperature.
Fig Clafouti
Achieve fancy-sounding results with very minimal effort—not much for either you or the kids to do here.
- serves 6 -
Adapted from Everyday Food magazine.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
8 ounces dried figs, stemmed and coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups Everyday Baking Mix (recipe follows)
3 large eggs
1 cup half-and-half
Confectioners sugar, for dusting
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch baking dish or cake pan. In a small bowl, toss the figs with 1/4 cup of the baking mix.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, melted butter, and remaining cup of baking mix. Add figs and stir until just combined. Pour batter into pan and place pan on a baking sheet. Bake until center of clafouti is set, about 30 minutes. Let cool until barely warm. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve.
Everyday Baking Mix (Quarter Portion)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Scant teaspoon salt
Procedure
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk well.