brunch for ROYALTY: Bottega Louie

RER 8.27.14

Big open spaces made brunch diners feel like royalty. The pure white walls, intricate molding on the ceiling, and simplistic luxury of the café décor, allowed the impenetrable morning bright light to reflect and amplify the space to gargantuan proportions.

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Pretty sweets, delicate and colorful as pictures lined the limitless display cases in the front of Bottega Louie in Los Angeles. Reds, pinks, peaches, soft greens and decadent chocolates danced through extravagant and detailed pastries reflecting the hyper vivid rainbow of macrons for purchase.

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Passed a little café area and an open kitchen framed with glass, a tall wall divided the enormous space, slightly separating the dining room, vast and refined.

The quick weekday breakfast menu was short and sweet. Along with breakfast staples like omelets, breakfast sandwiches, parfaits and French toast Bottega Louie added a little breakfast luxury to its menu, introducing the day with decadent prosciutto and burrata, lemon ricotta pancakes, and a smoked salmon Benedict.

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The beautiful presentation of the prosciutto and burrata mimicked an opening flower, fresh and blooming. The salty meat woke the taste buds, while the creamy burrata melded with the warm and spicy potato pancake.

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For a twist on a Benedict, the smoked salmon variety came with a base of tiny flavorful potato pancakes at its base. The salty salmon was brought together with moments of spicy red onion and earthy sautéed spinach, a vivacious crème fraiche and just enough hollandaise and smooth runny yolk. The combination was a riot of flavors, mixing breakfast and lunch elements to make for a lovely Benedict.

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A pretty slide of four large pancakes dusted with powdered sugar was served on a bed of fresh blueberries. The blueberries matched the syrup with a tart sweetness and violet hue. These pancakes were airy and light, moist, just sweet enough and hinted at lemon and summertime.

Vaulting ceilings and saturating sunlight made flavors fly and colors blush, fostering moments of happy breakfasts and delicious bites. A splendid start to another day.

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8.27.14

MangiaMore: LEMON Meringue pie

RER 3.2011

Sometimes the tongue has a hankering for something tangy, sweet, light and crunchy all at the same time. There are many many many delicious things that fulfill those specific requirements. But my favorite happens to be a good ol' lemon meringue pie. The tart tang of the lemon curd that marries so nicely with the fluffy cloud-like sweet meringue, is enough for me. Lemon meringue pie was created some sort of genius, a master of the tart and sweet. And I revere this maestro every time I take a bite of lemon meringue pie.

For this, we look to another food genius, Alton Brown, for his recipe of this comfort food all time favorite. Check out Alton's recipe, and I will show the essentials...

Crust
You can make your own with these recipes from Simply Recipes or even this tutorial from Smitten Kitchen.  I tend to use premade pie dough, like Pilsbury. Alton's recipe calls for a prebaked shell, so you must cook it according to the directions that accompany the recipe of your choosing.

Lemon Filling
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

This part requires heating up the cornstarch, sugar, water and salt, and whisking until its combined. Then bring this mixture to a boil but just for a minute. While this is happening, whisk the egg yolks together in a bowl. Once the hot mixture has boiled, add little bits of this to the bowl with the egg yolks. When half of the cornstarch mixture is in with the eggs, return this new mixture to the pot, turn to low, and cook, stirring constantly for just a minute to cook the eggs. Turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, stirring it all together. This is the lemon curd, which then you add to your already baked pie shell. Make sure to do it while it is still hot.

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Meringue
4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar

In your bowl mix the whites and the cream of tartar with a hand mixer, or a stand mixer, until soft peaks form. Then add in the sugar gradually, while beating the mixture. It is time to stop when stiffer peaks are created.

Assemble
Spread the meringue on top of the warm lemon mixture that has already settled nicely into the baked pie crust. Make sure to spread the egg white mixture all the way to the crust, because if not, it will separate from the crust as the meringue shrinks with baking.

Bake
Bake your assembled pie in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Your meringue should get golden brown and toasty.

Now for the hard part.... waiting. The pie really should be all the way cool before slicing, otherwise it gets really messy.

And the best part... ENJOY!!

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10.1.12 

RER 3.2011