The Perfect Sunday

There is something welcoming about a good breakfast. I consider it my favourite meal. In fact, I can have breakfast three times a day, if it wasn't for the damned arteries! It's also the only meal of the day where I welcome repetitiveness. Living in Delhi, Sunday brunch has always been a bit of a sore point. Restaurants and five stars have lots of choices, as long as you have the cash, or a story to write. Eating your way through to a profitable experience though, is far from easy.

Take my example, I am usually hungry all the time. I have been a morning person for as long as I remember. On a Sunday morning, my appetite is at its peak and everything I see on a brunch menu, usually laid out like a scrumptious Persian harem, is fair game. But after half-an-hour of eating, I'm full and most of the dishes stay untouched.

Tired of trying to stretch our stomaches to their individual limits, a couple of friends and I, decided to start a brunch club in Delhi. With great gusto we began sculpting the perfect breakfast, consisting of eggs benedict, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, sausages and bacon. This may seem too English to many, but its still my favourite Sunday meal, and usually keeps me full till 6 in the evening. And we had a parantha session, a Bengali breakfast of luchi and alurdom, but the egg theme recurs with unerring regularity.

I'm happy to report that our brunch club is doing quite well, as long as the three founder members are in town. Others have fallen by the wayside because of scheduling issues, but we have remained true.

The most recent meal included a dish which I have perfected over the years, scrambled eggs. Now, don't turn your noses up, my version of scrambled eggs is just eggs and butter. It's cooked over a low fire and stirred continiously, like a risotto. It takes time to come together, mine usually takes half an hour, but the result is light, yellow and needs just a touch of salt and pepper (since I use salted butter) and melts in your mouth. I think the perfect scrambled eggs needs a minimum of 3 eggs and a good dollop of butter (entirely to taste), per head. This is for Sunday brunch, not everyday breakfast, mind you. Let the butter melt before you whip the eggs with a fork to a omlette mix consistency, then stir over the low flame till it reaches a creamy texture. Take it off the heat when you consider it 80 per cent done, because it will continue cooking. The result, as you you see in the photograph above, makes my Sunday special.