Elevate Your Brunch Game With TJ Girard + Signature Kitchen Suite
The following post is brought to you by Signature Kitchen Suite. Our partners are hand-picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.
Who doesn’t love brunch, that leisurely compromise that’s a little bit breakfast and a little bit lunch all at once? The midmorning occasion is as much a mood as it is a meal: unhurried, sociable, and celebrated as an opportunity to gaze, graze, and laze with life’s worries put on pause. It also doesn’t hurt to pour a few libations to keep the weekend rolling. But let’s be honest, despite its reputation as a low-stress meal thrown together with savoir faire ease, hosting can easily become a culinary juggling act. Signature Kitchen Suite appliances are the perfect kitchen accomplice while preparing a multitude of brunch dishes, each with their own specific temperature and preparation requirements.
Signature Kitchen Suite invited food stylist, creative consultant, and Design Milk Taste columnist, TJ Girard to highlight the brand’s Signature Kitchen Suite 48-inch French Door Refrigerator and 48-inch Dual-Fuel Pro Range with Sous Vide and Induction. Then, she created a brunch menu to “sweep away the worries and cobwebs of the week” and offer aficionados a few tips along the way.
Photo: TJ Girard
Girard serves her home cured gravlax topped with sous-vide egg parfaits and salmon roe, accompanied with a sourdough boule and a lemon dill butter sphere. \\\ Photo: TJ Girard
Sous Vide Precision for the Perfect Sous-vide Parfait Egg
Sous vide cooking has been a closely guarded secret of professional chefs for years, producing evenly cooked, urgently flavorful, and healthier dishes. The secret: using a water bath to cook with a gentle, yet precisely measured body of water rather than a violent boil, ensuring food cooks evenly every time.
Photo: TJ Girard
The Signature Kitchen Suite 48-inch Dual-Fuel Pro Range is unique in its category, equipped with its own integrated sous vide. Girard thinks the feature is especially ideal for preparing parfait eggs with perfectly velvety-creamy yolks and just-set whites a day ahead of a planned brunch. “You can prepare the parfait eggs en masse one day ahead, then easily reheat them the next day with a quick 10-second sous vide bath just before serving.”
Photo: Signature Kitchen Suite
And to empower the cooking enthusiast with an unprecedented amount of control , Signature Kitchen Suite Pro Ranges and Rangetops are exclusively engineered with intuitive Smart Knobs that display the heat level, temperature, and cooking time. Each cooking method is controlled by a dedicated Smart Knob featuring large, easy-to-read, illuminated numbers and a Wi-Fi timer you can monitor on the ThinQ app, in case you want to leave the room all together and spend time with guests. Simply turn the knob to the desired temperature or burner level and rotate the LED display to set the cooking time. A chime will sound when the timer is finished to ensure perfect level of doneness whether cooking meat, veggies, or eggs.
Photo: TJ Girard
Your Refrigerator, Your Best Brunch Prep Assistant
Seasoned brunch hosts know a few things about the trials and tribulations of finding enough room in the refrigerator, first for ingredients prior to entertaining, then afterward to store leftovers. If there has ever been an appliance designed to address these practical concerns, the Signature Kitchen Suite 48-inch French Door Refrigerator does so confidently with a system of adjustable shelves and compartments that can adapt to a wide range of items of various shapes and sizes.
Photo: Signature Kitchen Suite
Girard notes the refrigerator can come in particularly handy while storing ingredients like her salmon filets during the curing process or after plating the gravlax across a presentation board. “The SKS refrigerator’s double door opening allows for us to fit our Taste:Work:Shop 42-inch long dome runner platter and have it pre-set ahead of our guests arriving. Being able to store an entire filet of gravlax or a charcuterie board makes preparing brunch a nearly no-effort affair.”
Photo: Signature Kitchen Suite
Photo: TJ Girard
Moreover, the Signature Kitchen Suite refrigerator’s Craft Ice Maker invites the addition of a sophisticated touch, typically limited to only the finest of cocktail establishments. Ice spheres melt slower than cubed ice, helping retain subtle flavors as those found in Girard’s sip-worthy, Tomato Water Gazpacho Gimlet cocktail. Don’t be surprised when brunch guests offer a toast in appreciation.
Photo: Signature Kitchen Suite
Photo: Signature Kitchen Suite
Induction Technology: Efficient, Fast, and Safe
When you’re hosting brunch, time is of the essence. Even with plenty of cocktails on hand, you never want to keep your guests waiting. This is where Signature Kitchen Suite’s induction-equipped appliances offer an efficient upgrade while preparing a multicourse brunch. Girard appreciates the range’s precise induction temperature control – crucial for delicate preparations like making homemade yogurt, tempering chocolate, or caramelizing onions – to produce predictable and reproduceable results. Additionally, induction is proven to be a safer and healthier cooking method within the home, keeping interior air cleaner.
Girard notes the Signature Kitchen Suite range’s two-zone induction zones and two ultra-low gas burners capable of simmering down to temperatures as low as 100 degrees are optimal for preparing chocolate, a technique utilized to prepare a signature monogram embellishment to top off her spoon-shaped cookies. \\\ Photo: TJ Girard
“Signature Kitchen Suite appliances are a gamechanger,” says Girard. “[The] versatile pair of appliances equipped with everything from sous vide, induction technology, steam and convection cooking, alongside the spacious refrigerator with its craft ice maker, allows anyone preparing brunch to focus upon the joys of creative preparation and artful presentation.”
More brunch tips from TJ Girard:
Plan a menu you can prepare mostly ahead of time
Choose a menu you can make ahead of time. That doesn’t mean you can’t handle one or two “à la minute” elements. For example, I like to occasionally prepare fried squash blossoms. But your whole menu shouldn’t monopolize your attention. People came to be with you.
Label your serving vessels with assigned menu items
Use Post-Its, scrap paper, or tape to label serving vessels. Labeling gives you an ending place for each food item and ensures you don’t forget to put something out. Labels are also handy if you have an early guest that wants to help.
Opt for self service
Offer and make a drink for guests when they arrive, but leave a chilled bottle of sparkling wine and a pre-batched cocktail on ice next to a pretty display of glasses to make self-service obvious and super seamless.
Be creative and break the ice
It’s a party! Break the ice by serving food in a way that encourages people to engage with one another. For example, I used a dome runner platter for the cured salmon alongside a brass spring with sesame tuille attached to the side of a bowl of homemade yogurt with berry fig salad. The silver art deco breadbasket for the fruit display belonged to my grandmother, and I served the lemon dill butter sphere in a CPIA resin ashtray designed by Goudeman, then served the salmon caviar in a terracotta tequila sipping glass.
Elevate your brunch repertoire with this simple yet exquisite gravlax recipe, a dish that pays homage to tradition while embracing modern convenience. Enjoy the delicate balance of flavors and textures that make gravlax an entertaining favorite \\\ Photo: TJ Girard.
Home-Cured Gravlax Recipe
Gravlax, a timeless classic dating back to 1600s, is a dish whose name is derived from the Swedish word “grav,” meaning grave. Gravlax was originally prepared by burying salmon underground in a dirt grave for several hours. In modern times, we’ve upgraded to the convenience of refrigeration, but the simplicity of this culinary tradition remains as captivating as ever.
To create the finest gravlax, begin with a premium, sashimi-grade salmon fillet. Alternatively, opt for high-quality frozen salmon. If purchasing from a fish market, kindly request that the fishmonger scales and removes any bones for you. But leave the skin on intact to prevent excessive salt absorption, ensuring a harmonious balance of flavors.
The key to crafting an impeccable cure lies in the perfect blend of salt, sugar, and aromatic elements like spices and citrus zest. Opt for natural coarse ground sea salt or kosher salt, as iodized (table) salts can introduce an undesirable chemical aftertaste, resulting in overly salty gravlax. Granulated sugar works nicely for this recipe. You could also use light or dark brown sugar, which adds a light molasses flavor. Aim for a cure mixture that constitutes approximately 20% of the salmon’s weight to achieve the ideal balance. Overuse of the mixture can lead to an excessively salty outcome.
As for the herbs, only use fresh. Dill is a classic choice, but don’t shy away from exploring alternatives like cilantro or Thai basil. The possibilities are endless once you’ve mastered the foundational recipe, allowing you to experiment with ingredients like beets, orange zest, and crushed toasted coriander seeds. Add chopped lemongrass, grated ginger, lime, and red chili to create a punchier flavor profile.
Ingredients:
- 2 lb salmon, sashimi-grade, bones removed and skin on
- 1 Tbsp white and pink peppercorns (whole)
- 1 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped, or 1 big bunch, do not use dried herbs
- 250g / 8 oz rock Himalayan salt
- 250g / 8 oz white sugar
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 oz. gin
Instructions:
- Begin by rinsing the salmon fillet and gently patting it dry.
- Roughly grind the white and pink peppercorns along with the Himalayan salt using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder.
- Zest and juice the lemon separately. Set the zest aside; the lemon juice will be used later.
- Chop the fresh dill.
- Combine the lemon zest, ground peppercorns, salt, sugar, and dill by tossing them together in a bowl.
- Line a hotel pan or glass baking dish with a piece of parchment paper.
- Spoon half of the salt mixture onto the parchment paper.
- Place the salmon, skin side down, on top of the salt mixture. Press the remaining salt mixture onto the top side of the salmon.
- Pour the lemon juice and gin evenly over the mixture, ensuring the fish is fully covered.
- Cover the fish with plastic wrap, sealing it tightly.
- Add a small cutting board or baking dish on top of the sealed fish and weigh it down with something heavy like cans.
- Allow the salmon to chill in the refrigerator for 24 hours, undisturbed.You can extend this time to 36 hours for a firmer cure if desired.
- After 24 hours (recommended), carefully unwrap the salmon, scrape off the salt mixture, and rinse it. Pat it dry. For enhanced texture and flavor, if time allows, return it to the fridge uncovered for 3 to 12 hours.
- When ready to serve, slice the gravlax thinly on an angle using a sharp sashimi knife, being careful not to cut through the skin. The skin can be broiled separately for a delightful crispy snack.
- Once plated, your salmon can be garnished with fresh dill and lemon zest. Or if you’re lucky enough to have an urban farm like me, a vine of “spoonful” baby tomatoes make the perfect adornment.
If there are any leftovers after your gathering, rest assured cured salmon will stay fresh for up to 5 days when tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
To learn more about Signature Kitchen Suite’s innovative appliances and to see how they can fit into your lifestyle, visit signaturekitchensuite.com.
