(upbeat music)
- Hi guys, it's Lee Kalpakis.
And we just made an unbelievable brunch dinner party
all for just under $30 with the help
of food writer and cookbook author, Alison Roman.
So stick around to see how we did it.
Today we're in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
to meet up with Ann.
She's a filmmaker who wants to throw
a brunch-themed dinner party
to thank her creative collaborators
and to celebrate the completion of her feature film.
So let's go meet her.
- Hi - Hi.
- This movie took three years to make.
The only reason this film exists is
because I have this incredible core team
that has been with me since Day 1.
And so I really want to throw them a dinner party tonight.
- You seem like a pretty busy lady.
Do you ever have time to cook?
- No, no, no.
I almost never cook.
I'd rather spend my time sleeping than cooking.
For this meal tonight,
I was thinking something like
a breakfast, dinner, collab -- like a brinner.
- Brinner?
You're blowing my mind right now.
- My cooking knowledge basically
is breakfast -- that's as far as I go with cooking.
- It sounds like we're going to need
to bring in big guns on this one.
And I just so happen to know the perfect expert.
I'm thinking Alison Roman,
and I think she's the perfect expert
to help us create this brunch experience.
I was leafing through Alison's book,
and I would love to do a baked egg dish
with chorizo and chickpeas and breadcrumbs.
And then she also does this raspberry-yogurt pound cake.
- Oh yeah.
- Then I'm thinking we could do
a ginger/orange prosecco cocktail.
- Oh la la.
- Let's go meet up with Alison.
And let's go do some shopping.
All right? - Let's do this.
- Hi Alison.
- How's it going?
- Good, how are you?
- I'm great, thank you
- Are you ready to shop?
- I am very ready to shop.
Let's do it, let's go.
(upbeat music)
- Hi everybody, we're back in the Thrillist kitchen.
I'm here with Ann and Alison
and we're about to embark on our brunch journey.
I say it's time to start on our egg dish.
So we have like two tablespoons of olive oil, right?
- Yeah.
- Chorizo comes next, right?
Coming in hot, yeah.
- Right.
It already is seasoned, right?
It already has spices in it, it already has salt in it
so you're just adding more flavor.
- I'm gonna add the onion,
which is gonna soak up all those flavors
that you're telling us about.
- For a little more spice,
we're going to add some ground cumin.
I'm gonna do that for you.
- Ann, you want to go ahead and add our tomatoes?
- [Ann] Absolutely.
- [Alison] I'm going to go ahead and season these bad boys.
A little salt and pepper --
I have used a pepper grinder before.
- I can tell.
Ann, are you ready with those chickpeas?
- I am.
Can I use a different bean?
Is this the only bean that I can use in this dish?
- Black bean if you wanted to do a little Tex-Mex.
- A pinto bean.
- Always.
- A pinto bean, yeah, go crazy.
- A jelly bean?
- Not a jelly bean.
- [Lee] Just had to ask. OK.
- Yeah, now we're talking.
- [Lee] Oh yeah.
- Now we're going to add a little bit of water.
And it's really just to kind of create like a final sauce.
These eggs cannot wait to nest in there.
So I'm gonna crack 'em in.
And they just sit right there.
If you want to season them with salt and pepper
as I crack 'em in.
- [Lee] Absolutely.
- We are going to pop these little babies
into a 400-degree oven.
We're looking at like five to seven minutes.
- Oh my goodness.
- It looks beautiful. - OK, little ladies.
- What's next?
- We need a little bit of texture.
So we're going to add some breadcrumbs,
which you already made from the baguette
that we're also going to use to eat this with.
- Moving right along to our raspberry pound cake.
We've got some flour, we add some baking powder,
and a little bit of salt,
and whisk 'em up.
Let's get started on these wet ingredients.
What've you got for me?
- I've got some regular granulated sugar,
light brown sugar, a little vegetable oil.
This is gonna keep it really moist and delicious.
- Two eggs.
- Let's get cracking.
(laughs)
- All right.
- I'll be here all day, thank you.
And now we're going to add some yogurt --
you can just kind of add it all at once.
And we're going to add these berries.
You want them evenly distributed is the only thing.
Did you grease this bad boy up?
- I did, with butter.
- You're an angel from heaven.
- And now this goes in the oven at 350, right?
- Mm hmm. - For how long?
- Who could say really?
This little lady's gonna go in there for 60 to 70 minutes.
- Our loaf is ready; it's completely cooled.
What do you think of that?
Our raspberry pound cake, it's done.
It's brunch, we need a cocktail.
We're going to do prosecco, we're going to do ginger,
and we're gonna do fresh- squeezed orange juice.
In my Mason jar, I'm gonna add a half cup sugar,
half cup of water, some ginger
that I'm going to grate in there -- like a teaspoon.
Ann, can you get me a few orange peels?
Twist like three of these guys
and just put them right in there.
I'm gonna shake this up
until all the sugar's dissolved.
Let's move on to our fresh squeezed orange juice.
Ann, you want to slice those up?
Next, we're going to add our orange juice
to our simple syrup.
And we're going to mix those two together.
We're going to fill our coupe glasses up halfway
with our orange juice and the rest of the way with prosecco.
And there you have it: our orange ginger little fizzies.
- Cheers, ladies.
- [Everyone] Cheers.
- Wow that is really really good.
- Brunchy. - It's like a Saturday.
- What day is it? - Whoa!
- Oh my God, I'm in a time warp.
- We'll just slug this back real quick.
- [Ann] My guests will be very surprised
by how delicious this meal is going to be.
And it's all thanks to you, Alison and Lee.
- You know what?
You've got this. We're so excited for you.
- Thank you so much.
I'm feeling great about brinner.
I feel like Alison and Lee gave me all the tools
I need to succeed tonight.
- Since I've known Ann, she hasn't cooked.
- I've only ever seen her cook toast,
or like, peanut butter and jelly.
- The last pumpkin pie was just baked, canned,
pie filling in tin, no crust.
- I'm expecting something really simple.
- I don't have high hopes for this dinner party.
- [Ann] This is a yogurt- raspberry pound cake.
- [Everyone] Oh wow.
- Baked eggs, chickpeas, and chorizo.
We are finally finished [with] our baby, our movie,
and I wanted to thank you guys so much
for being a part of it from Day 1.
- Thanks, Ann.
Cheers.
- Oo, that does have a zing.
- The yolk is going to be runny,
so you can use some of that baguette to mop it up
and like stir it around.
- She can cook. I was surprised.
It's really good, Ann.
I'm really proud.
- I live for your approval.
Did everyone get enough yogurt and breadcrumbs?
- Thank you.
- Yeah, the yogurt, the way it goes with the chorizo,
you'd never expect that, but it fits.
It was just light and creamy and perfect.
- The texture of the breadcrumbs just perfectly
sinks into the egg.
- Did you use real oranges?
- Yes.
- Yeah, this is dangerous.
I could drink this, like, all day.
- Yeah the ginger really takes it to another level.
- I know the ginger's got a nice spice kick to it.
- Wow, oh my gosh, this is really good.
- Another thing that I learned
is this was made with vegetable oil
as opposed to butter,
and the vegetable oil is what maintains the moisture.
- You know, usually I don't go in for brunch.
I think it's kind of overrated.
But when you nailed the savory and sweet together
like this, that's what brunch is all about.
- As your producer, I can't really approve
of you spending too much, but you really nailed it
with this $30 dinner, brunch.
"Brinner."
- [Everyone] Cheers.
- Sorry, I don't know if it's supposed to be
dinner or brunch right now.
- Ann impressed me with this dinner.
It was really, really delicious.
- I think they liked it.
I think they really liked it.
- I'm not going to lie, it just all was really delicious.
- Now that I've had brunch for dinner like this,
no, I would not say it's overrated.
- Oh yeah, brunch can always be dinner.
- I will definitely be cooking more often
now that I know how easy it is
to prepare a meal for my friends.
- Well, Ann killed it.
She served her friends an unbelievable brunch spread
that was definitely more
than just a couple of eggs and pancakes,
all thanks to our friend Alison Roman.
Well, see ya.
(upbeat music)
- Thanks so much to everyone for watching.
Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and share.
And check out the recipes at Thrillist.com.
Woo!