Brioche French Toast (with lemon curd and blueberries!)

Greetings fellow food fans! 

As most of you may know, I've been living in the Oz-like city of Chicago for the past year. Now I grew up in sunny California and then moved to the less sunny but rather picturesque East Coast and that whole time, the Midwest was little more than a place to change airplanes. While I can't say my year of living here has made me love Chicago (sorry, I know it tries to be very friendly....), it has taught me to love two new things...blueberries and brioche. Especially in French Toast.


(Warning- this is me babbling about food, if all you want is the recipe and foodporny photos, skip to where it says ingredients)

If there's one thing most of my culinary choices are defined by its my childhood as a first generation Indian immigrant. Yes, there's no denying it, I'm secretly a FOB. Not only am I now adept at whipping up quick and delicious Indian foods, I have to spend time undoing very peculiar taste assumptions formed years ago.

Blueberries and French Toast are both such things. Blueberries, not being remotely Indian, were a sort of puzzling fruit when I was a kid. My first encounter with them was not so pleasant given that no one had any clue what they were supposed to taste like, how to tell when they were ripe, or how to eat them so after one unfortunate taste test they were relegated to the category of "Foods I dislike". Val didn't use them so it wasn't until the Midwestern move that I encountered them again when a former roomate claimed that Michigan blueberries were amazing...so I tried one. She was right. Michigan, you win at blueberries.

French Toast is less foreign to me than blueberries...but French Toast in my house hold is always made savory (recipe for that later). I only discovered sweet French Toast while away at a week long camp in 6th grade and since then I've been intrigued and delighted by it.

This recipe is an adaptation of a particularly delicious item at my favorite Chicago brunch location, Hot Chocolate. If you're ever in Chicago, holla at me and we'll go. It's perfect for brunch, or breakfast for dinner as was the case with me. So here we go, Brioche French Toast with lemon curd and blueberry compote!!!

Blueberry Compote

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries, the fresher the better (mine were from my farmers market)

1/4 cup of sugar (I used organic cane sugar, not sure how it'd taste with brown)

Water (drinking, not distilled)

Pour your blueberries into a pot and put in enough water to cover them. Don't put in too much water because your berries will release their own juice, if you put in too much you'll have to simmer it much longer! Set your stove on low-heat and wait for the mixture to simmer. Once your berries start to soften and burst and your mixture turns a gorgeous red magenta-y shade pour in your sugar. Stir slowly so the bottom doesn't burn and the sugar is mixed evenly and continue to simmer until berries have completely burst and the water has mostly simmered away leaving you with something with a jam-like consistency. Taste and add more sugar if needed.

Hurrah, you're done! Keep it on your stove on very very very low heat so it stays warm, stirring occasionally to keep it from solidifying.

French Toast (ooh la la)

Ingredients:

3 large eggs (I like organic cage free eggs)

1/4 cup half and half (if you want it to be richer substitute heavy cream)

1.5 tablespoons of sugar (like before, I used organic cane sugar)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

4 thick slices of Brioche (I got mine at my super farmers market, challah would work well too)

Unsalted sweet cream butter for your pan (you really don't want salt getting into this toast!)

Lemon curd (for spreading on the hot toast)

In a mixing bowl combine the eggs (de-shelled, obviously), half and half, sugar, and spices. I loved  this spice mix, it smelled amazing and the cloves and ginger give it an unexpected bite. Whisk together until it's mixed well. Your egg yolks/whites shouldn't separate at all and the spices should be evenly distrbuted.

Now you have your batter, super! On to the next part!

Pour your batter into a shallow cake pan. Since I was only making 4 slices I used a really small pan, if you have more batter you can use a bigger one. Place a slice of brioche into the batter and let it sit for 2 mins until the bread has started to soak up the batter. Flip it over and let it soak for another 2 minutes. You want the bread to absorb as much as it can without becoming soggy.

No salmonella here!

While your bread soaks, melt some of your butter in a frying pan or skillet. I used my non-stick frying pan to make clean up easy. On medium heat, fry your eggy bread until golden then flip it until both sides are thoroughly cooked and golden. My mother issues this warning- raw eggs in many states are giving people salmonella, so use a spatula to press down on the sides while cooking so you don't have raw bits!

Do the same thing to the other 3 slices. I kept my already made slices on a plate under a spare pot lid so they stay warm and moist. 

Yum!

Spread liberal amounts of lemon curd over the bread and top it off with your berry compote. If you're feeling especially decadent, some creme fraiche or freshly whipped cream is a great addition. Put it on a plate, grab your silverware and stuff your face!

Extra blueberry compote can be eaten plain or saved as jam. In fact, I may even whip up another batch with this weekend's farmers market haul and make gift jars of home-made blueberry jam!

Happy eatings, I'm off to the market!