Easy does it: Yotam Ottolenghi's brunch dishes | Food (2024)

Food-wise, although I am willing to spend an hour preparing one centrepiece dish – this invariably involves egg – the rest needs to be immediate, simple and unchallenging, in terms both of flavour and of the effort needed to make it. Essentially, everything should come out of the fridge, cupboard or local bakery: bread and butter, jams, coffee, fruit juice, a few mild cheeses, granola, yoghurt and some buttery pastries. This, plus the weekend papers, is all you need to spend half a day in unadulterated domestic bliss.

Aubergine, potato, tomato

There's a fair bit of preparation involvedin this but this is astunning, unusual dish that you can easily gethooked on. Servesfour to six.

4 medium tomatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
½ small red onion, peeled and finelychopped
1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
15g parsley, chopped
1½ tbsp Sriracha (or other hot savoury chilli sauce)
Salt and black pepper
2 aubergines, cut into 3cmchunks
250ml olive oil
About 300ml sunflower oil
600g charlotte potatoes (or other waxy variety), peeled and cut into 3mm-thick slices
80g tahini paste
2½ tbsp lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, peeled andcrushed
6 eggs
1 tsp sumac
1 tbsp coriander, chopped

Mix the aubergine with ateaspoon and a half of salt, place in a colander and set over a bowl for half an hour, to drain off any excess liquid. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and pat dry.

In a 26cm sauté pan or skillet, put 200ml of olive oil and as muchsunflower oil as you need to bring it 1cm up the sides of the pan. Place on a medium-high heat and, once hot, add the aubergine in batches and fry for three to four minutes, until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate lined with kitchenpaper and repeat with the rest of the aubergine. Leave the oil to cool, pour into a jar – you'll be able to use it for future frying – andwipe down the pan.

Put the tahini, 60ml of water, atablespoon and a half of lemon juice, the garlic and a pinch of salt ina medium bowl, and whisk to athick, pourable consistency. Spoon half the sauce over the potatoes andspread the aubergine on top. Follow this with the remaining tahini, then the tomatoes. Poach the eggs just before you are ready to serve and lay them on top of the tomatoes, along with a drizzle of the remaining oil, a sprinkle each ofsumac and coriander, and the lastof the lemon juice. Bring to the table in the pan.

Super french toast

Heat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3. Put the milk, cream, orange skin, cinnamon, split vanilla pod and seeds in a medium saucepan. Heat gently on a medium-low heat until just before it comes to a boil – about five minutes – then turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, line a 32cm x 22cm oven dish with baking paper and lay the brioche slices flat in the base.

Put the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk. Slowly whisk in the warm infused cream, then strain and pour two-thirds of the custard over the brioche, to cover. Tipthe remaining custard into a wide, shallow bowl and set aside.

Put half the butter in a large nonstick frying pan and place on amedium-high heat. Dip half the bread squares into the bowl of reserved custard, transfer to aplate and sprinkle half a teaspoon of icing sugar on each square. Lay the brioche slices in the pan, sugar side down, and fry for 30 seconds to a minute, to caramelise the sugar. While they are frying, sprinkle half a teaspoon of icing sugar on the other side of each slice. Flip over and cook for another 30-60 seconds, until the sugar is dark brown and crisp, then remove from the pan and leave to rest on awire rack. Repeat with the remaining brioche slices and butter.

To serve, place one slice of toast on each plate with two tablespoons of sour cream and as much maple syrup as you like.