Brussels Sprouts Help

In my continuing effort to revisit foods that I long ago made up my mind I hated, I tried some roasted brussels sprouts. I'm not sure exactly how the dish was prepared (we were guests), but they were quite good. However, they needed a bit more complexity/sizzle to really get my attention. Nevertheless, I'm enthused enough to give them a try on my own.

I'm looking from any prep ideas and perhaps just as importantly, what should I look for when shopping for these little parrot heads. Roasted? Sauteed, steamed? secret ingredients?

Give me what you got.

One of my favorite ways to prepare Brussels sprouts is to take off the bottom nub, make an x at the top, and put them into olive oil with chopped shallots; let saute for a few minutes, then add chopped garlic, a little sweet wine (Madeira), and a touch of stock, cover and let simmer for a few minutes--check them every so often and turn them around in there; cook until tender or the liquid is near dry, whichever happens first. They come out savory and slightly sweet.

Another fabulous recipe was one from Stuart Yaniger a number of years ago: shredded Brussels sprout-potato latkes (with carroway) and melted chevre on top.

I look for littler ones. I think they're less bitter (and smelly).

I would go for classic preps:
- cook up some bacon or other salt pork, saute the sprouts in the fat
- find button mushrooms about the same size as the sprouts, continue as if making 'sauteed green beans with fried onions on top'


Jeff

[Robin Garr]

Give me what you got.

My head exploded when I tasted a spicy Korean roasted brussels sprout dish at RYE in NuLu last winter, and I managed to come close to re-creating that recipe as well as developing a more general process.

The process is simple: Halve b-sprouts, toss them in high smoke-point oil with onion chunks, garlic and S&P and roast at high temp until they become sweet little delicious brown nuggets. Then sauce them with something perky.

Here's RYE's Korean shtick, or my best shot at it, anyway:

Take your sprouts - the fresher and smaller the better. Cut off the bottoms, and split them vertically in half. Discard any loose leaves that fall off.

Then cook the prepped sprouts, with several chunks of smashed garlic and S&P, over high heat in a little peanut oil in a black-iron skillet until they start browning. Then slam the skillet into a preheated 400F oven and let them go for another 15 or 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While they roast, make up about a half-cup of a spicy, Korean-flavor spice mix. I went with what I had and whisked together 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon rice-wine vinegar, and enough brown sugar (maybe a heaping teaspoon) to bring the sweet and sour into balance. Then I added a teaspoon of Indonesian sambal oelek paste (use more if you want them to burrrrrn), a shot of dark soy sauce, a good grind of black pepper and a secret ingredient ... oh, all right, a glug of Heinz Chili Sauce. Whisk, add a little water to bring it up to 1/2 cup or so, and check seasonings.

When the sprouts are roasted, well browned and sweet, take them off heat and mix in the spice mix. Serve immediately with hot basmati rice.

I agree with Jeff - get the smallest ones you can find. I really love them just halved, tossed with olive oil and salt, and roasted. Tossing them afterwards with bacon and blue cheese crumbles will make them much more luxurious. I haven't tried any spicy versions, but Robin's sounds great.

Not sure that getting to like a food is achieved by disguising it in so many other flavours you hide the taste of the original.

I echo the above advice to buy the smallest Brussels you can. They taste better and cook quicker.

Not always possible to get the tiniest ones, so always pull off the coarser green outer leaves till you are left with a knobby core of tight pale green. I steam for 15-20 mins till no longer hard. But should still offer some reststance to a knife point. Al dente

I too used to hate brussels, love them now.

Brussel varieties now aren't the same sulphurous types we grew up with, but are sweeter and cleaner tsting. They used to be cooked for way too long -- and theyleft the manky tought old outer leaves on. If its so big that it won't cook without cutting a cross in the base then its too big.

I halve them and throw them in a skillet with high-heat oil (usually coconut); add salt. Let them sit there over high heat, without moving them, until they get nice and charred (almost black) on one side. Then shake the pan to move them, or flip them over, if you have that much patience, and allow the other side to sear. Then lower the heat to medium, put in a splash of water or stock in to de-glaze the pan and cover with a lid. Allow them to steam for a few minutes until tender. Reduce any liquid left in the pan until you have a nice glaze, and you are ready to serve. I like them with lemon juice over them, and at times will deglaze with lemon juice in addition to water if the bottom of the pan gets too browned. This is a quick way to cook them - they are done in 7-8 minutes, tops. I love the flavor the charring imparts, and you don't need much more seasoning than salt.

Trim and marinate in EVOO, onion, garlic, thyme or other herbs. Roast in 400 degree F oven for 15 minutes covered with foil, and another half hour more or less until done; uncovered.

Pickle the tiny ones and serve them in a gin martini.

Brussels sprouts used to be my most loathed vegetable. To me, it took all of the smelly, obnoxious characteristics of an entire head of cabbage and concentrated them something that was still large enough that you had to bite it at least once in order to swallow it. I later discovered that brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and the other "smelly vegetables" of my youth could be very tasty if you didn't overcook them. My mother had been brought up in the 1940s/50s American culinary that said vegetables were undercooked if they hadn't turned grey yet.

So the key to Brussels sprouts is not to overcook them.

-Paul W.

and the easiest way NOT to overcook is to halve them as has been suggested. i first boil them till just tender and then finish one way or another. bacon and onion are good as has also been suggested. so is cream and tarragon.

[Jenise]

A lot of my favorite preps have already been mentioned. Five that haven't:

1) Boiled or microwaved for 3-4 minutes then finished for another couple minutes in butter with cardamom seed. Cardamom and Brussels sprouts have a terrific affinity for each other.

2) Chiffonaded and made into a 'hash' a la Union Square Café.

3) Chiffonaded and tossed with cooked spinach fettucine for an interesting vegetable/carb combo to nest under grilled pork or lamb chops.

4) Blanched then roasted in olive oil until tender then tossed with red wine vinegar, fresh garlic, olive oil and salt. Serve as a warm salad.

5) Shaved and added to salads, or tossed with olive oil and white wine vinegar and salt and used as a lacy garnish topping for grilled meats.

I'm usually not a fan of gooping up my veggies with cream or cheesiness, etc. but this is good.

Brussels Sprouts Braised in Cream

1 lb brussels sprouts
3 Tbsp sweet butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 C heavy cream
1/2 lemon

Trim the base of the sprouts and cut each in quarters. Melt the butter in a heavy dutch oven and add the sprouts, salt and pepper. Cook until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Pour in the cream, stir and cover. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer. Cook over low heat until the sprouts are soft but hold together, about 30 minutes. Remove the cover, add the lemon juice and stir. cook uncovered for a few minutes to further reduce the cream to a glaze. Serve hot.

A lot of my faves have been covered. We had a dinner at our friend Karl's house -- we basically provided catering for his relatives, including a couple who were guaranteed not to eat the Brussels Sprouts although Karl loves them and had request them specifically. Louise found the tiny sprouts, smaller than a marble, at McCaffery's (a fancy local grocery in Princeton) and I did the usual thing, cutting most of the tiny sprouts in half, cooking bacon in a cast iron frying pan, and scorching the cut surfaces in the bacon grease. Everyone ate them including the purported skeptics and everyone liked them. That technique, blackening the cut surfaces and adding some meat flavor, is a winner for most people.

BUT if you don't like the smell and that is an obstacle, there are a number of recipes where you can shred the sprouts, or peel off the individual leaves (obviously a fussy and time consuming task) and serve them raw in a salad or maybe a cole-slawish prep. Not hard to find recipes of this sort on the internet, and sprout leaves are not nearly as chewy and crunchy as raw kale, also often used in salads these days. And there's more or less no stinky side.

Random example from the internet

http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/2014/04/b ... ped-salad/

Prep time
20 mins
Total time
20 mins

Adapted from Chow.com.
Author: Brittany Mullins
Serves: 6
Ingredients
2 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1 pound of Brussels sprouts
⅓ cup toasted walnuts, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries
1-2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
Dressing
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
½ teaspoon sea salt, more if needed
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more if needed
Instructions
Chop the eggs into tiny pieces. Place in a small bowl and set aside.
Chop the sprouts by holding on to the stem end and thinly slicing crosswise until you get close to the stem. Trash the stems and add sprout slices into a large bowl. Use your hands to breaking up the little layers.
Make the dressing by placing apple cider vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper in a jar and stirring with a fork to combine. Add the olive oil to the jar, cover tightly and shake the jar until everything is well combined. (You could also do this in a blender or in a bowl.)
Add the toasted walnuts, cranberries and half of the chopped eggs to the Brussels sprouts and drizzle with the dressing. Gently toss until combined. Let the salad sit at room temperature until the sprouts slightly soften and the flavors combine, about 15 minutes.Toss the salad again to redistribute the dressing. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
Transfer to a serving dish, top with the remaining eggs and crumbled goat cheese.

Thanks for all the great ideas. I'm off to find some sprouts!