12.15.08
Cooking Brussels Sprouts
Growing up, I had a prejudice against Brussels sprouts, and a well-deserved one, seeing as how they invariably sucked. Even my father, who would eat anything known to man, thought they tasted like gym socks. This of course stemmed from the fact that the only way anyone seemed to know how to cook them was to boil them for about half an hour - to ensure they were cooked through to the center - and the resulting over-cooked exteriors were a pallid, sulfurous mess. No offense to my newly-adopted fellow countrymen, but this was how Brits cooked vegetables (BBR - “Boiling Beyond Recognition”) and as could be predicted, it produced something completely inedible.
 Scary when raw, they come about nicely when cooked right… |
I can’t remember when I had my first good Brussels sprout, but it was well into my adult life. The trick was to blanch them, and then saute them - applying a dry heat cooking method to caramelize the sugars, and to keep down the sulfur production. And I then used this method when I was at Vero to add a dish similar to this to the menu. When winter rolled around in Rustico, Chef Frank showed me his way of making Brussels sprouts, which was the same as I had learned to do it to produce great results. I was happy to learn that the technique I had worked out was the same as the one he was teaching me - sort of a “corroboration after the fact” by a chef who knew a lot more than me…
However, I have developed a recipe that seems to please the crowds, so I will now share with you the technique step-by-step with you, and I hope you will follow along at home, and let me know what you think!
 Wow, so artistic! |
Step 1: You need to trim the bottoms off the Brussels sprouts. They are usually discolored and tough anyway, so trim them off slightly, and any leaves that want to fall off at this point, let them go. This is great stuff for your compost pile anyway…
 Action photo! I hope you all appreciate the steam burns I gave myself trying to capture this moment for you… |
Step 2: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the sprouts and simmer them until they are nicely cooked – but not cooked all the way through. This is a critical step – if you overcook them at this stage, we will be back at the “sulfurous mess” stage of things. So how do you know when they are blanched enough? I like to go by the smell guide. When they just start giving off that “cooked cabbage” smell, they are done – drain them, and get them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process.
 This is a lot of bacon for the sprouts. You may want to do a little less. |
Step 3: In a large sauté pan, start cooking some bacon. Cook it until it is done, but not too crisp of course, because that is just nasty. Remove the bacon to a plate, but leave the rendered fat behind. This is what we will use to cook the sprouts. If you don’t have enough fat from the bacon, you can boost it with butter, oil, or best, some reserved bacon fat (which you all save, right?…)
 Sprouts are sliced and trimmed of all the leaves that want to fall off. You are ready to assemble the final dish! |
Step 4: The blanched sprouts are nice and cool by now, so take them out and slice them in half. Again, some more leaves will want to fall off – let them go. Some people like to quarter their sprouts at this stage, and I have no problem with that if they are nice and big. But I like the look of halved sprouts myself. That is a question of personal preference, not divine mandate…
 Since they are sauteing in bacon fat, the odds that they will be awesome are now pretty high… |
Step 5: Sprouts go in the pan! All that hot fat should start cooking them nicely right off the bat, but you want to work quickly to make sure you get all the cuts sides face down in the pan so they brown nicely. When your guests look at the sprouts, this is the side that will tell their brain that these have been nicely caramelized – so make sure this side is looking good on your sprouts – the rest is just cooking them through.
 Testing for doneness. You want to see some color on that flat side. This one here needs just a little bit more… |
Step 6: You can test for when all the sprouts are ready to flip by turning over one of them in the middle of the pan. If they look good, you should be well on the way. Give them all a toss, and then throw in some halved chestnuts and heat them through.
 The pan is getting more crowded now. Crowded with awesome! |
Step 7: Back goes the bacon! Really, how can you go wrong with bacon playing such a starring role in the recipe? Maybe I don’t like Brussels sprouts after all – maybe I’m just using them as a convenient vehicle for bacon… No, not really – but its presence certainly doesn’t hurt things!
 The finished product - lovely to look at, and wonderful to eat! |
Step 8: Just before you pull them off the heat, toss in some dried cranberries (plumped in some warm water if you like) or some raisins. Off the heat, top with some blue cheese or Parmesan (not too much, just a little to make the texture more creamy) and some pomegranate seeds (if you like). The sweet/tart/creamy/bacony/buttery flavors and textures will not only delight the taste buds, but the resulting dish is lovely on the plate as well.
I hope this changes your mind on this much-maligned vegetable, and of course I hope you enjoy cooking them now as well!
Stumble it!
Dave said,
December 15, 2008 at 8:46 am
I love Brussels Sprouts, especially roasted with other root vegetables. Fennel, carrots, onions, etc. I don’t usually blanch them beforehand. Do you (all) think that would work better?
Barzelay said,
December 15, 2008 at 2:31 pm
This is a good method that you show here. But it’s not my #1 preferred method, which is as follows:
Trim stems, then cut sprouts in half from stem to other end. Toss with a healthy amount of olive oil and salt, and a sprinkling of some sugar (maybe 2 tbsp per pound of sprouts, but that’s just a guess). Arrange the sprouts more or less cut side up in a baking dish or sheet pan, but don’t crowd them. It’s okay if they’re touching, but they should be in one layer. Roast at about 400F for thirty minutes or so, tossing once after about twenty minutes (and not worrying about their orientation once tossed). They get deeply browned, a bit crispy around the edges, and tender on the inside.
Chef Matt said,
December 18, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Yes, this oven-roasting method works out great as well. I blanch them briefly for just one reason - you get a better and more evenly cooked final product. Additionally, when you blanch them, you actually pull out some of the bitter liquid that is in the sprouts and remove it from the final product. When you go straight to the dry heat cooking, the liquid comes out of the sprouts and the flavors can remain. It is not an enormous difference, but a noticeable one in my opinion. Yes, it is a bit more work to do the pre-blanch of the sprouts, but I think a worthwhile one.
Ryan said,
December 19, 2008 at 11:51 am
I saw this techinique used by Guy Fieri the very same day that I read this.
Won’t change my opinion on Brussell Sprouts though.