You might not have heard of it yet, but there’s a new culinary trend which has been making its mark on the foodie scene over the past few years, first in New York and more recently in Paris. Increasingly popular, both at home and in restaurants, the “drunch” -a lunch-dinner hybrid- is usually enjoyed between 3 and 6pm on Sundays. Advantages: it allows weekenders to spend a leisurely afternoon enjoying some curative food with friends and family while giving them some free time in the morning and allowing them to have an early night to recover before Monday.
French artisan mustard maker Maille and super chef Hélène Darroze (who holds two Michelin stars at The Connaught in London and two others at her eponymous restaurant in Paris) have teamed up to create a six courses Drunch menu, available to sample at Maille’s lovely pop up boutique.
There they can taste tomato gazpacho, slow cooked lamb parmentier, crab cakes, eggs, red berry salad and caramelised apples. The tables are already fully booked but tastings will be available at the boutique’s counter. And all for free!
And for the experimental foodie who’d rather try the Drunch at home, here is below Hélène’s Sunday Drunch Eggs recipe.
Hélène’s Sunday Drunch Eggs Recipe
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the salted cod brandade: 150g salted cod fillets +100g potatoes, peeled and quartered + 25ml milk + 1 tsp olive oil
For the croque monsieur: 4 slices of white bread + 2 slices of ham + 2 slices of cheddar + 75g mascarpone + 25g parmeggiano + Salt+ Black or Espelette pepper
For the poached eggs and hollandaise sauce: 8 organic eggs + 180g Maille hollandaise + 40g melted butter + Salt + Black or Espelette pepper
• Desalt the cod and poach with the potatoes in the milk, without letting it boil
• Once cooked, remove from the milk and mash together with the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
• For the croque monsieur, mix the mascarpone and the parmeggiano together
• Cut the ham and cheese to be the same size as the bread
• Butter both sides of the bread slices and spread the mascarpone mixture on one side of each slice
• Fill the bread with ham and cheese to make two sandwiches or “croque monsieurs”
• Toast for 1-2 minutes under a grill and cut each croque monsieur into 4 pieces
• For the eggs, bring a pan of salted water to a simmer and add a drop of vinegar
• Poach the eggs and drain immediately
• In a bowl, mix the hollandaise with the butter. Season with salt and pepper.
• When ready to serve, put two pieces of croque monsieur on a plate with a quenelle of brandade. Top each croque monsieur with an egg and cover with hollandaise sauce.
www.maille.co.uk
