A FRESH TABLE: Chocolate-orange scones, a pitcher of tisane, leek pancakes… (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles…)
Come this way, up the garden steps and into a backyard where the patio is canopied by an old avocado tree. Take a seat in the mild yellow light of the resurgent sun, and fill a plate from a buffet of brunch dishes as spring-like as they are appetizing and fresh. Nibble a leek pancake wrapped around a crisp spear of asparagus, sip an herbal tisane, indulge in a chocolate-orange scone. Let the textures and aromas play over your senses -- here a creamy mouthful, there a vibrant touch of spice -- like flowers in a bouquet. Relax, and celebrate spring. For a few blissful hours, you have nothing else to do and nowhere else you'd rather be.
Maybe it's Easter morning, although it doesn't have to be. Most everyone's up anyway, awake to a world that's warmer and greener and more vertical than it's been in months. It's a perfect time to serve a leisurely brunch.
For the centerpiece there's a stack of leek pancakes, small and graceful and designed for wrapping around a roasted asparagus spear or a supple slice of prosciutto. Gravlax, arranged like a fan of rose petals on a platter, is a perfect match for the savory cakes. Basil and mint and lemon grass steep in a pitcher to make a fragrant tisane, an herb-garden still-life in glass.
Light and seasonal yet with touches of luxury -- bowls of dill hollandaise sauce and caraway seed-flecked crème fraîche, ribbons of satiny prosciutto -- this is a brunch that frames a casual alfresco meal with a sense of occasion.
With the dainty pancakes, roll up slices of gravlax or prosciutto, capture a few spears of spring asparagus, spoon a dollop of sauce on the top. Then meander around the garden, maybe hide a few eggs for the kids, and come back to the table for a plate of chocolate-orange scones (laced with oat flour, leavened with cream and still warm from the oven), or an individual parfait of Greek yogurt and macerated strawberries.
The sweet notes are an elegant segue into the slow end of the morning and the brunch itself.
The sun moves around the sky, warming the lawn chairs and brightening the plates and silverware; this is a patient meal, one that can linger into the afternoon. As you can, over a mug of coffee, maybe a chocolate rabbit.
Such a leisurely brunch is built not only by the arrangement itself, laid out buffet-style and assembled to suit personal tastes, but also by the fact that most of it can be done ahead of time.
For a Sunday brunch, you'll need to start curing your gravlax Friday morning. Just take skin-on salmon fillets, spread them with equal parts sugar and kosher salt. Add some sliced fennel and a sprinkling of aquavit -- a Scandinavian spirit similar to vodka that is typically flavored with caraway. Stack the fillets, wrap them in cheesecloth, add weights on top and put the whole thing in the refrigerator. After 24 hours, turn the package over; after two days, unwrap the fish, scrape off the salt-fennel mixture and slice it very thinly on a bias.
Subtler than smoked salmon, gravlax has a velvety texture and a delicate taste -- here scented with notes of anise and licorice -- that pairs beautifully with a bowlful of crème fraîche studded with toasted caraway seeds.
An early start
THE day before the brunch, toast some caraway seeds in a pan, crush them a bit with the back of a spoon and mix the aromatic seeds with a cup of crème fraîche and a little salt and pepper. The flavors marry overnight -- and it's one more thing to check off your to-do list.
Pick up some thinly sliced prosciutto de Parma from your favorite specialty or grocery store the day before too. Store it, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator; just make sure that it's served at room temperature.
The morning of your brunch, prepare some fresh herbs -- ideally, you'd just pick them from your garden -- to make a tisane, a refreshing ad hoc tea.
Just fill a clear glass teapot or pitcher -- so you can see the leaves inside -- with a few stalks of lemon grass and lush sprigs of mint or basil, lemon verbena or thyme. Or use a combination of a few herbs. (We used lemon grass, basil and peppermint.) For cooled tea, boil water, pour it over the herbs and set it aside. To serve hot, set the pitcher of herbs aside now and at serving time, pour hot water over and steep for five minutes. Either way, make sure you put the gorgeous pitcher in the center of the table.
