Pork

We enjoyed good food and good company with our friends for a Sunday brunch today. One of my favorite meals in life is brunch. I think if I had to choose my last meal on Earth, it would be a brunch buffet. I couldn’t make a buffet for our friends, but I planned the next best thing; breakfast pizza. My mom always made this for special occasion breakfasts when I was a kid and I loved it. It was a once a year treat, or sometimes less. So when we did get to eat it, it was the best thing ever. It’s perfect brunch food. But that’s not all we ate.

I made breakfast pizza, and strawberry filled crepes. Our friends made a fresh fruit salad, brought muffins from Avalon Bakery in Detroit, and brought fixin’s for mimosas. Mix all that together and you get a perfect meal.

RECIPES:

Breakfast Pizza

1 lb breakfast pork sausage
1 packages of 8 crescent rolls
1 cup frozen loose pack hash browns, thawed
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
5 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Brown sausage and drain. Separate rolls into 8 triangles and place in an un-greased 12″ pizza pan with points toward center. Press over bottom and up the sides. Spoon sausage over crust. Sprinkle potatoes and cheese. In a bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Pour over crust. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 375 degrees in oven for 25-30 minutes. Makes 6-8 slices. (I made a double batch and used 3 cans of crescent rolls instead of 2)

Crepes (Palacinky)

1 cup flour
2 eggs
1  1/4 cup milk (may need more if too thick)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Beat eggs, add sugar, salt and milk. Add flour little by little and beat well. Beat until very smooth. Batter should be thin so you may add more milk. Brown on both sides in a pan (I sprayed pan with cooking spray) with curved sides. Remove from pan, add filling, and roll up. (I used sugared strawberries for my filling, but you can use preserves, or pie filling, or just raw fruit. Whatever you want.)

This is Aya’s goes to specialty. It’s quick and easy and she has her own ways of modifying it. We’ve eaten this many many times in our house over the years. It’s always a treat when we do. Originally from the Szechuan province, it is an incredibly spicy dish.  This is just a modified Japanese version.  And it’s also one of those dishes that every household has it’s own version of, as it is a typical dish that is served in Japan.

RECIPES:

Mapo Tofu

Ingredients;
Tobanjan(Korean spicy chilli paste) 1ts(more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
Grated fresh ginger 5-10g
Garlic 1 clove(you can use more per your preference)
200g ground pork.(Aya used turkey)
1 package tofu(Aya used firm but you can use silky…but it won’t retain it’s shape once stirred)
1 bunch Nira(It’s a Chinese leek that has a very potent fragrant like garlic does and can be found in Asian specialty stores.  May be substituted with green onions)
Aya only added carrots for the extra color and to have Ellie eat more vegetables, but traditionally it doesn’t call for it.

Soy sauce 1 tb
Sugar 2tb
Japanese cooking wine 1ts
Potato starch 1tb(may use corn starch.  Asian dishes usually call for potato starch)

Japanese chicken broth 1 1/2 c(you may use regular chicken broth)

Vegetable cooking oil
Sesame oil

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large wok.
2. Stir fry the garlic and ginger with tobanjan.
3. Add the meat and cook thoroughly.
4. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, and cooking wine together and pour in to mix.
5. Add carrots if you would like to.
6. Add broth and bring to a boil.
7. Once it comes to a boil, add the starch with water at 1:2 ratio.
8. Add tofu and nira.
9. Turn down heat and pour in sesame oil around the wok for fragrance and lightly stir.