Chefs' Tips & Tricks! Mother's Day Brunch

Ah Mother’s Day, that special Sunday every year when you and the mother figure in your life can drink bottomless mimosas and spend the rest of the day in food-induced comas, free of judgment.

by ANNA BROOKS | photography by DONG KIM

Mother’s Day brunch has become a timehonoured tradition, one so revered that restaurants serving anything egg-related have to plan months in advance to accommodate the throng of guests eager to celebrate a morning of matriarchs.

But if you’re not one for crowds or waiting in long lines, you can still treat the moms in your life with an extra special brunch from the comfort of home. That’s why this month, we talked to four Alberta chefs who shared some tips and tricks (and delicious recipes!) for whipping up a lavish brunch meant just for mom.

Merritt Gordon, chef at Dandy Brewing Company in Calgary, loves to keep brunch simple and classic. Putting too much pressure on yourself can be a recipe for disaster, and after all, what really matters on Mother’s Day is spending time with people you love.

And even if things don’t go exactly as planned, you can take solace in the fact that mothers will love you unconditionally — even if you’ve broken your fifth batch of hollandaise sauce.

“Brunch doesn’t have to be so intimidating,” Gordon says. “I just love a traditional breakfast with eggs, baked beans, roasted tomatoes, and your choice of meat. The classics are classics for a reason!”

But even the classics can be a lot of work the morning of, especially when your guests have already gulped down a few mimosas.

Gordon recommends picking a dish low on labour or one you can prepare the day before. Perfect if you don’t have a lot of kitchen space (or if you just want to save time on dishes) try Gordon’s ooey gooey recipe for bread pudding French toast!

Bread Pudding French Toast

Serves 4

450 g sandwich bread of your choice

2 cups (500 mL) heavy cream

6 eggs

100 g icing sugar

10 g cinnamon Clarified butter for finishing

1. Cut bread into small, even cubes and place in a 25 x 30 cm (10 x 12”) baking dish lined with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together remaining ingredients and gently pour into prepared pan, moistening all cubes of bread.

3. Wrap dish in aluminum foil and place in refrigerator. Leave to soak for 6 hours, preferably overnight.

4. After soaking, preheat oven to 300º F. Remove from fridge and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The final product should resemble a soft custard with no runny liquid.

5. Let cool, and then portion into pieces. When ready to serve, brush pieces with melted clarified butter (or regular melted butter, if you prefer).

6. Bake in a hot oven until outside begins to crisp, but inside is still soft. Serve with your favourite French toast toppings!

There’s a lot of pressure to make Mother’s Day special, and that’s why so many of us leave brunch to the experts. Mauro Martina, chef and founder of OEB Breakfast Co. in Calgary, Edmonton, and soon to be Vancouver, says you may not have the tools or skills to whip up a batch of sourdough charcoal bagels or the perfect eggs Florentine, but that doesn’t mean you can’t come up with a memorable meal for whomever you call mom.

“You want to make them feel special,” he says. “One thing you can do is incorporate something you wouldn’t have every day, like truffles. And you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars, you can buy truffle paste or oil at a good specialty store.”

Simple little touches, like garnishing eggs with microgreens or serving up strawberries and melted chocolate for dipping are all easy (and affordable) tricks Martina says will make your brunch extra special.

The perfect accompaniment for eggs with hollandaise sauce, try Martina’s recipe for truffle squash ragout!

Truffle Squash Ragout

Serves 4

2 Tbs (30 mL) canola or vegetable oil

900 g butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

1 sprig fresh thyme, whole

1 large yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

85 g brown sugar

4 cups (1 L) vegetable stock (or enough to cover the squash when cooking)

1 Tbs (15 mL) truffle paste or sauce (recommended Tartufata, found at fine Italian supermarkets)

To taste salt and black pepper

1 Tbs (15 mL) white truffle oil, to finish only!

1. Preheat a large pot with canola oil. Add cubed squash and sauté 5 to 8 minutes without giving the squash any colour.

2. Add bay leaf, whole sprig of thyme, and season lightly with salt and black pepper.

3. Add onions, garlic, brown sugar and stir well. Cook for an additional 5 to 6 minutes on medium-low heat.

4. Add enough vegetable stock to just cover the squash. Lower heat and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, or until squash is fork tender. When done, stir in truffle paste.

5. Cool completely. Finish with truffle oil, and season kosher salt and pepper.

6. Serve warm over your favourite toasted bread or wilted spinach. Poached eggs pair well with this dish – especially with hollandaise sauce!

Brad Tebble, head chef at PIP in Edmonton, is all about comfort food – the heart of every good brunch menu. Other than the mothers in our lives, of course, what’s more comforting than slugging down prosecco and gorging yourself on a decadent platter of French toast?

Tebble’s best advice for making the perfect Mother’s Day meal is sticking to simple, but high-quality ingredients.

Another “trick” he shares is loading up on ingredients most humans (well, not any of us

at Culinaire) try to cut back on. Yes, today is the day you can have as much salt and butter as you want!

“Salt, pepper, and butter are the best things to happen to food in my opinion,” he says. “I think a big thing people miss is just the amount of seasoning you need to use – that’s why restaurant food tastes so much better than home cooking!”

Don’t hold back on seasoning while trying out Tebble’s recipe for his new favourite dish at PIP, mushroom toast with poached eggs!

Mushroom Toast with Poached Eggs

Serves 2-3

2/3 cup unsalted butter

¼ cup shallots, minced

625 g cremini mushrooms (or mushrooms of your choice), cleaned and sliced

1/3 cup white wine

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbs fresh thyme, chopped

1 Tbs (15 mL) heavy cream

To taste salt and black pepper

2-3 large slices of sourdough bread, toasted

2-3 eggs (cooked to your choice)

Parmesan cheese, shredded (for garnish)

1. In a wide-bottomed pot, melt butter until it foams. Add shallots, and cook until soft and translucent, approximately 2 minutes.

2. Add mushrooms. Cook until fat is absorbed and starts to brown.

3. Add wine to deglaze. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until all liquid is absorbed (mushrooms shouldn’t be runny).

4. Place a generous portion of mushrooms on the toast. Place soft poached egg (or cooked to your preference) on top and garnish with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese.

For an added touch, sprinkle crispy potato sticks, like hickory sticks, on top!

Let’s be honest, for moms anywhere, it’s the little things that count. That’s why they still have that lumpy clay dinosaur you made back in kindergarten proudly on display.

Dave Bohati, executive chef at Murrieta’s Mountain Bar & Grill in Calgary and Canmore, says the same goes for cooking – a little in the brunch world can go a long way.

If you have a dehydrator, Bohati says dehydrated tomatoes are one of his favourite ingredients to incorporate into brunch dishes. Using a food processor, Bohati says you can whir up dried tomatoes into a powder and stir into hollandaise sauce to give it a kick of acidity (plus, it looks pretty too!).

If you want to take indulgence to new heights, one of Bohati’s best tricks requires just one ingredient: condensed milk.

“If you take a can of sweet, condensed milk and boil it for three to four hours, it turns into dulce de leche,” he says. “You can turn that into a base for something like a stuffed French toast with vanilla Chantilly cream – it’s a whole other level of high calorie deliciousness.”

If the mom in your life has a sweet tooth, impress her with Bohati’s recipe for carrot cake topped with fresh lemon and ricotta.

Mother’s Day Carrot Cake

Serves 5

1½ cups (325 mL) canola oil

300 g or 6 large eggs

300 g white sugar

100 g brown sugar

250 g flour

10 g cinnamon

10 g baking powder

6 g baking soda

4 g salt

300 g grated carrot Ricotta cheese, zested lemon, and castor sugar (optional garnish)

1. Emulsify canola oil and eggs with an immersion hand blender.

2. Add sugars and continue to blend.

3. Preheat oven to 350º F. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl.

4. Mix wet and dry ingredients together, and stir in grated carrot.

5. Pour into a prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

6. Let cake cool before cutting into squares.

Tip: Ricotta cheese, zested lemon, and castor sugar make a refreshing substitute for traditional cream cheese icing!

Anna Brooks is an award-winning journalist and graduate student currently living and studying in New York City.