September 5, 2010: Home fried brunch

Once our first flurry of enthusiasm passed, Cindy and I have been pretty remiss at breaking out Vegan Brunch for weekend feasts (the lure of the inner-north's billion excellent cafes probably has something to do with it). So with a lazy Sunday stretching in front of us, I decided it was time to dive back in.

As has been widely reported, the vegan omelettes are really quite brilliant, so we started with them as our base. We opted for a potato-based side again, forgoing the hash browns in favour of diner-style home fries and capping the whole thing off with a slathering of guacamole.

First things first: this all takes a fair bit of time and energy, so get the coffee going first. If you wake up hungry, you might need something to tide you over because you won't be eating for an hour or two (depending on how efficient you are). On the upside: it's totally worth it. Everything about this meal hit the Sunday morning (actually it was probably afternoon by the time we ate!) spot. The crispy spuds, amazingly eggy tofu omelettes and glorious guacamole were satisfying enough to keep us well stuffed until dinner time. The recipes we've made from Vegan Brunch have been pretty consistently great - we just need to remember that we're allowed to cook our own breakfast sometimes.

The basic omelette recipe is here.


Diner home fries

1 kg kipfler potatoes, peeled and sliced into little chip-sized pieces (see above)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced (the recipe calls for a green pepper here and we inexplicably forgot the US naming conventions, but the chilli worked well anyway)
1 onion, cut into chunky pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Put the spuds in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil, drop the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. You want them cooked but not falling apart. Drain.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan. Add the cooked spuds and stir them about to get them coated in oil. Leave them to cook over medium-high heat for five minutes or so to brown them up a bit. Flip them over and cook for another 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. You're basically trying to get them as crispy as you can, which will depend on the size of your pan and how hot you've got the burner going.

Add in the chilli, onion, salt and pepper and the last tablespoon of oil. Stir everything together thoroughly and cook for another five minutes or so, until the onion has softened.

If you're particularly skilled, you'll time this so that it's ready just as the omelettes are - otherwise the spuds benefit from being refried a bit right before serving to bring back their crispiness.

Guacamole
2 ripe avocados
1 small tomato, finely chopped
2 tablespoons coriander, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste.

Mush all the ingredients together in a bowl (those are some pretty complicated instructions!)