J – I think my vegetable-cooking gene is defective.
Or, at least, it has been under the weather for quite awhile. Every time I try to make green vegetables, blanching, sauteing or otherwise, I overcook them. Sometimes, just a bit. But, I do. Especially with Brussels sprouts. I can suffer through slightly overcooked veggies, but Christina flat out won’t eat them. Period. Makes her own.
I needed to solve this Brussels sprouts cooking thing right away. Conveniently, I ran across Momofuku’s recipe for roasting them. Might as well go right to the top. David Chang is one of the best chefs around and I liked the Asian spin. So, I’m betting on his recipe. Of course, I adapted it a bit for simplicity. Better not mess up.
Ok, the first thing I noticed is that water is not involved except for washing. Second thing, I had a choice of frying or roasting. Both reduce my chances of messing up. I chose the roasting method. Less oil and less process.
Prep was easy. Roasting even easier. Just had to watch them, since the recipe implied a shorter roasting time.
The fish sauce vinaigrette was easy to make and well balanced.
| Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Fish Sauce Vinaigrette |
- ½ cup fish sauce (Adjust for taste with water or lime juice. Some are saltier than others.)
- ¼ cup water
- 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- Juice of 1 lime
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 to 3 bird’s-eye chiles. Thinly sliced, seeds intact
- 2 Tbsp very thinly sliced cilantro stems, plus ½ cup leaves
- 3 Tbsp mint, chopped
- 2 pounds Brussels sprouts, smaller the better
- 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
- Combine all ingredients and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Rinse Brussels sprouts and dry very well.
- Peel loose and discolored leaves from the sprouts. Trim the dry ends and cut in half. Cut especially large ones into quarters.
- Toss cut sprouts in a bowl with two tablespoons oil. Arrange, cut-side-down, on a parchment-covered sheet pan.
- Roast in oven, checking for browning every 10 to 15 minutes. Once they start to brown nicely, toss around the pan with a spatula a couple of times as they roast.
- The sprouts are ready when they are tender, but not soft, and have a nice dark brown color.
- Serve warm on a platter. Drizzle generously with dressing and top with cilantro leaves. Serve rest of dressing in a bowl.
- Enjoy!
They turned out great. Nice and tender, but not overcooked at all. Very well-balanced flavor with a nice kick from the bird’s-eye chili. Best thing is, Christina ate them and liked them a lot.
Now, I need to move on to other veggies. Maybe my vegetable-cooking gene will come back to life.
Adapted from Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan.