Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Braised Brussels Sprouts

It's pretty hard to beat plain old roasted brussels sprouts, with a sprinkle of salt (or Borsari!). They're easy...just pop 'em in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-45 minutes, and they come out so creamy on the inside and completely delicious.

But, this year I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the very first time. I'm pretty excited and am starting to test out some recipes for side dishes. So when I came across this recipe for brussels sprouts braised in heavy cream, with a splash of lemon, I knew I had to try it out. And believe me, it's a winner.




I didn't make any changes, so just follow the link over to Orangette. She waxes poetic about brussels sprouts for far longer than even I could manage...the actual recipe is quite a ways down the post. Oh, and not a big surprise, but her picture is way better than mine.

This may very well be even more delicious than roasted brussels sprouts, but I'm going to force myself not to make it very often as I absolutely couldn't control myself. I'm embarrassed to admit that I ate about 3/4 of this by myself. I was actually glad my kids didn't like it so I could eat theirs. I made this less than a week ago and I can't even remember what else I served for dinner that night; I pretty much just ate tons of brussels sprouts! So good, and on special occasions like Thanksgiving, I'm totally willing to go there and eat sprouts swimming in a whole cup of heavy cream!

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If anyone has any recipe suggestions for Thanksgiving side dishes, I'd love to hear it (bonus points if they use ingredients I can find locally!)

7 comments:

  1. I am ashamed to admit that I have never had a brussel sprout. But as I am hosting Thanksgiving and want to do a mostly local, preservative-free dinner, I need ideas like this. I'm getting hungry just looking at and I have no idea what it might taste like. That's gotta be a good sign, right?

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  3. Here's a brussels sprout dish I did last Thanksgiving. It uses sauces from a local company, but one could certainly cheat and use regular ingredients as I indicate.

    In fact, I may try that tonight; I DO have some lovely local sprouts in the house:

    http://www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/?p=593

    I'd love to try the cream thing, which looks lovely in your photo, but it's a path I'm not sure I should go down!

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  4. Oh. My. God.
    This one is definitely a winner.
    And for the record, I could drink heavy cream.

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  5. Nicole, you've definitely got to try brussels sprouts! If you don't want to go there with the heavy cream, here's an awesome (and easy recipe): trim the bottom stem of the sprouts. If the sprouts are little (better that way, but hard to find sometimes), you can leave them whole. Otherwise, cut them in half. Remove any yicky-looking outer leaves (tend to fall off anyway). Put them on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Stir them up, and then roast at 400 degrees until lightly browned (will depend on the size of the sprouts...lets say 30-45 minutes). Stir a few times while cooking for more even browning. So delicious, and so easy!

    Tinky--wow that looks good! I think a trip to a large farmstand is in order to see if there are any brussels sprouts left!

    Jules--glad you liked it. Amazing, right? :)

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  6. Okay, one more favorite recipe to share: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Caramelized-Brussels-Sprouts-with-Pistachios/Detail.aspx I haven't made this in years since one of my sons is terribly allergic to pistachios, and that's really what makes this recipe great. It's a very different flavor you get with this one!

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  7. Tried this recipe )as a test run for the big day) and its was SO good!! Also did the roasted in olive oil thing - equally delicious! I guess now I have to try the pistachio one :)

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