new year brunch

'brunch' (its the burbs!) is possibly my most favourite time for having people around for a meal. I'm well rested (usually) therefore relatively stress free and ready for what the day brings. Surprising then that i don't do it very often!? New Years brings a flurry of activity and today we had a lovely meal with friends who were all en route home to far away places and wouldn't be seen again for quite some time. we ate, chatted, sunned ourselves, and the bean showed everyone around his favourite place: the vege garden (always something edible to be gleaned at a visit)

Brunch for 12 required 2 hours of prep (pretty good in my book). On the menu was local wood-fired sourdough toast with Gnomes scrambled eggs ala Maggie Beer (secret ingredients of orange zest, local cream and local BD butter and strictly! stirred only with a wooden spoon) local BD bacon, oven baked to extra crispiness ( never ever do bacon in a pan if you like quick and crispy bacon), pan fried mushrooms with garlic, crispy wholemeal waffles with maple and homemade baked ricotta with a tomato balsamic glaze.
Thanks to the wonders of modern online social networking sites, I unearthed a friend with a this recipe which Id made 10 years ago and loved but the ex took all the good cookbooks and this recipe was in one of them. I put the call out and viola, recipe sourced. Its a ripper.

Individual Herbed Lemon Ricotta

500g Ricotta
Dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic – crushed
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
½ cup olive oil
150g semi dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Crusty bread to serve

Lightly grease and line four ½ cup ramekins with plastic wrap.
Divide the ricotta between the moulds and press down firmly
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours
Preheat oven to 220°C.
Unmould ricottas onto a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 20 minutes or until golden
To make the dressing – combine all the ingredients in a bowl.
Place each baked ricotta into a shallow bowl and pour a little of the dressing over each one.
Serve immediately with crusty fresh bread.

I didn't bother making them individual nor turning onto baking paper, nor wrapping in plastic stuff, nor serving IMMEDIATELY, I just baked a whole-lotta ricotta in a round pyrex dish and periodically poured out excess liquid, for a lovely big wheel, slopped tomato dressing on top and on side. I used freshly oven baked/dried tomatoes instead of semi-dried ones and per usual didn't really measure anything! just tossed stuff in a bowl. Hence the rather large olive oil pool...