Adam Richmans' Ol' Blighty Brunch

Ingredients

  • One stick sweet butter
  • One package of bacon – can be thick cut, but avoid any flavorings like maple.
  • Olive oil
  • 1 1/2 pounds all-purpose potatoes, peeled, cooked until fork tender, and cut into chunks
  • 1 1/4 pounds mixed winter vegetables such as carrots, Brussels sprouts, rutabagas, turnips, onions, leeks or savoy cabbage, peeled or trimmed, chopped into equal-sized chunks, and cooked until fork tender
  • 3 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Approximately 4 to 6 ounces of roast beef, cooked (preferably on the rare side) (can be eye of round, London broil, or thoroughly cooked through brisket – sliced about 1/2 of an inch thick.)
  • Few bay leaves
  • Two large eggs
  • 3-4 links of breakfast sausage
  • one large plum tomato
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon good-quality vegetable or chicken stock

Directions

Preheat the oven and a roasting pan to 425 degrees F.

Preheat a medium sized pan on medium heat. Add a few squares of butter, when it sizzles, fry the bacon. At least 6-8 slices. You can even fry off most of the package though you won’t be eating it all. Remove from heat when ALMOST cooked through and set aside. Remove 1 ½ teaspoons of fat in pan and added it to a large frying pan; reserve the rest of the fat that’s in this pan for later use.

In the large pan over medium heat, heat an ounce or so (maybe one good GLUG) of olive oil and 1 tabelspoon of butter. When it sizzles, add the potatoes and vegetables. Mash the vegetables up in the pan, then pat the mixture into a thick pancake. Fry on a medium heat for about 1/2 an hour, checking it every 5 minutes. WATCH IT CAREFULLY! When the bottom turns golden, flip it over bit by bit and mash it back into itself. Pat it out flat again and continue cooking until really crisp all over.

Take the preheated roasting pan from the oven. Drizzle in some olive oil and add the onions. Season with some kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, add another three squares of butter and stir. Place the beef on top of the onions. Throw a bay leaf or two between the slices of meat. Drizzle with some more oil and roast in the preheated oven for around 10 minutes, flip and cook until a nice chocolate brown char has formed. Remove from heat and let rest.

If bubble and squeak still hasn't browned, put it under a hot broiler for a few minutes. Remove from oven. Using a cookie cutter, knife or even a coffee mug, cut a circular section – or two depending upon the size of your pancake – out of the center of the bubble and squeak. Set aside (or just eat it and smile and know all is right with the world). Return the rest of bubble and squeak to the stove top over medium heat. Crack your egg or eggs and carefully drop into the hole(s), keeping the yolk intact. Allow whites to set. Remove from heat and place on plate.

Turn up heat on medium pan (with bacon fat) to medium high, and add 1-2 squares of butter. Add Sausages. Cut plum tomato in half. After a minute or so, set tomato halves flat side down in pan. Flip tomato as you flip sausages. Cook tomato halves until skin is wilted and it is soft; cook sausages until they are browned. Remove tomato and sausages and add to plate with bubble and squeak. Keep heat on pan, add 1 ½ squares of butter and add about 4 pieces of the mostly cooked bacon from the beginning of the recipe. Cook until crisp, remove from heat and add to plate.

Place the roasting pan with the onions on the stove top. Turn the heat up to full and stir in the flour, balsamic vinegar and stock. Bring to the boil and leave to thicken to a nice gravy consistency, stirring every now and then, and season to taste.

Plate the slices of beef and drizzle the onion gravy on top.

Best way to plate: Bubble and squeak toad in the hole in center. Sausage at 10 o’clock, tomato at 2 o’clock, beef from 3 to 6 o’clock, bacon at 7 o’clock.

Equipment:
Oven
Stovetop (at least two burners)
Roasting pan
Butter knife x 2
Chef’s knife
Medium frying pan
Large frying pan
Baking tray with rack (to rest meat)
Cookie cutter
Whisk
Spatula x 2
Large spoon x 2
Fork x 2
Ladle

Schedule