3 Ways to Make Brussel Sprouts Taste Amazing

hey what's up brussels sprouts are a pretty polarizing vegetable you either love them or you hate them you're not like 5 out of 10 on brussels sprouts probably that's a shame because in my opinion brussels sprouts when prepared properly are one of if not the most delicious tasting vegetables available to the human mouth today i'm going to show you three different ways to make them taste very delicious the first way i'm going to show you guys to prepare brussels sprouts is what i'm calling simply the raw brussels salad it's crunchy flavorful full of interesting textures and guaranteed to get you hyped on brussels to get started i'm going to grab my japanese mandolin and roughly a half pound or a quarter kilo of large brussels sprouts i specify large brussels here mainly because they're easier and safer to shave thinly on a mandolin and when i say thin i mean it i'm looking for about a sixteenth of an inch give or take brussels are very fibrous and need to be broken down pretty far to avoid punishing your mandible of course if you don't have a mandolin you surely could just cut these thinly with a knife but that's going to kind of depend on your competency with a knife again these need to be very thin once i've got about 200 to 225 grams of shaved sprouts here i'm going to scoot them into a bowl and then preheat my oven to 325f next i'm gonna make the best possible crunchiness for an already crunchy raw vegetable salad that's candied nuts for that i'm gonna set these brussels aside and then grab a second bowl into which i'll crack and strain one egg white i'll save the yolk for later and then come back with a whisk and whip some air into this white i'm not looking for stiff peaks or anything here i want just enough air to create a little bit of egg white foam next i'll add 90 grams of sugar and then whisk that to combine this method of making candy nuts is definitely on the quick and dirty side there's other ways that are more refined and slightly better but this is by far the easiest that i'm aware of basically the egg white protein here is going to provide viscosity and structure to hold the sugar onto the nut speaking of nuts in goes 120 grams of chopped pecans and then i'll stir those into the egg foam syrup situation once they're evenly coated i'll flip them out onto a parchment-lined sheet tray while making sure to spread them out super flat and evenly once they're spread out i'll move them over to my 325f oven and bake them for 30 to 40 minutes 10 minutes later i'll come back and stir these nuts to make sure that they're evenly coated see how the egg whites have puffed a little bit if we didn't stir them that sugar egg white mixture would set puffed and then we'd have a very weird ugly meringue with a bunch of nuts stuck inside of it the door gets closed and i'll bake for another 25 minutes next i'll need to get some bacon diced small for that i have four thin slices or about two per person again this recipe makes a large side for two or an entree for one and once i've got four slices of bacon diced small like this i'm gonna scoot it into a non-stick pan and then top it with about a half cup of water this is gonna help the bacon render its fat a lot more evenly and as a result give us really crispy well-fried bits of bacon now i'm going to bring this to a simmer cook off the water then render it on lowest sheet for about 10 to 15 minutes this is it at the four minute mark this is it at the six or seven minute mark and then after about 10 to 12 minutes this is what properly rendered crisped up bacon it should look like next i'll scoot this bacon onto a paper towel to drain try not to snack on it or just make extra that's a better idea after 30 to 40 minutes in the oven i'm gonna pull out the candied pecans as you can see the sugar has taken on a nice light golden brown color and the nuts underneath are nice and toasty as well to get these salad ready once they've cooled a bit i'm going to give them a rough chop like this then scoot them into a little hand strainer and sift out the excessive dusty sugar this way i'm left with just nice medium chunks of salad ready pecans also this is way more than you need for the salad but these are great to have on hand if you dig salad next let's quickly make the simple white balsamic dressing for that i'm going to combine 50 grams of white balsamic vinegar or a good tasting white wine vinegar could also work then 15 grams of minced shallot or red onion 25 grams of stone ground grainy mustard and then a long squeezer of honey or about 15 grams then a strong pinch of salt then some pepper and before i add any oil i'm going to stir all this to combine this is going to make the emulsification part a lot more stable lastly in goes 100 grams of extra virgin olive oil to finish i'll pop on a lid and shake the living out of this dressing until the honey and mustard have done the heavy lifting of holding the vinegar and oil into emulsion and there we go a light tart fruity white balsamic dressing by itself this dressing is probably a little bit acidic but that's by design because raw brussels really needs something assertive to season them up properly now to build this salad i've got 200 grams of shaved brussels sprouts in my bowl then i'll add in about half of my dressing then some salt then some pepper and then a hefty grip of my candied pecans behind that most of the rendered bacon from before and i'll save a little bit to put on top later on now to toss this i'll grab some tongs then give the salad a few flips to get everything combined most importantly now i'm going to give it a taste to see if i think it's ready a little bit more dressing and we're there finally i'm going to build this into a nice pretty pile on a medium sized platter i'll top it with some additional candy pecans the rest of that bacon and then just to make sure these sprouts are well lubed up i'm going to give them another spoonful or two of the dressing the final touch is to top this with some shredded aged white cheddar cheese i'm using lauren's absolute favorite cheese on earth prairie breeze this is an eight-month properly made cheddar from iowa that is pretty widely available in the u.s and by any objective measure delicious to get it salad ready i grated it on the feather side of my box grater you guys untamed raw brussels sprouts are in fact punishing to eat but shaving them thin and giving them a bath with a fruity white balsamic dressing makes them pleasantly docile that isn't to say this salad isn't full of life though it's practically a treasure chest of textures it's got pops of salt from the bacon pops of sweet from the pecan the white cheddar brings a creamy salty nutty character to just about every bite and acts as the great unifier in a salad with a lot of fiber fighting to keep things separate next i'm going to show you how to blanch a brussels sprout with boiling water this dish is going to be frenchy luxurious and hopefully will reset your idea of what a boiled sprout can be let's start with one pound of large brussels if all you have access to is small no big here but scale down the cook time accordingly now i'm just going to lop off a bit of the stem end here and then cut the whole sprout in half next i'm gonna go ahead and chop the rest of these sprouts chop once i've got just about a pounds worth or a half kilo halved i'm gonna head over to my stove where i've got a large pot of boiling water for about five quarts and into that i'm gonna add a lot of salt like a half cup to three quarters cup worth way more than you think the blanching water should taste almost like the ocean and yeah that still needs more salt so in that goes and then in goes all of my brussels sprouts right away if you're wondering hey bry how is blanching different from just boiling well blanching in my world view is a two-step process of first cooking something in water as quickly as physics will allow the closer to 212f the better in my opinion then step two is stopping that cooking process as quickly as possible with ice or shocking it that shocking does two main things one is it stops cooking in its tracks meaning it also stops carryover cooking that's the main culprit in making boiled vegetables mushy and it also sets the color blanched vegetables are greener brighter and more vibrant than boiled ones total cook time here was about two to two and a half minutes texturally these are just a little bit softer than al dente no mushiness blanche brussels sprouts should have just a little bit of nice snap and a little bit of crunch just like this delicious adult cereal from the sponsor of this video magic spoon when i was a kid i could pound an entire box of sugary cereal and my tiny stem cell-filled body would just take it like a champ but eating loads of sugar and carbs for breakfast now as an adult just isn't an option if i need to be productive all day that's why i'm really into what the folks at magic spoon are doing magic spoon is cereal reinvented it tastes just like some of the sugary cereals that we ate as kids but has zero grams of sugar 13 to 14 grams of protein and only four to five net grams of carbs per serving build a variety box with any of their best selling flavors like cocoa fruity peanut butter maple waffle or my personal favorite frosted and now you can also add their new cookies and cream and cocoa peanut butter cereal bars to your variety box to try magic spoon click the link below and get five dollars off your variety box with code brian lagerstrom or go to magicspoon.com brian lagerstrom to save five dollars off your order and for all my canadian and british friends magic spoon is now shipping to canada and the uk so get some thank you magic spoon next to prevent these brussels from getting waterlogged and tasting like nothing i'm going to remove them from the ice bath as soon as they're cooled down and drop them onto a paper towel lined sheet tray i'll give them a firm blotting with a second paper towel to get as much excessive water out of there as possible and there we go deeply green well-seasoned brussels with a pleasant soft crunch in the middle to finish i'll grab a large saute pan and preheat it over medium-high heat into that goes a half cup or so of chicken or vegetable stock and then once that's simmering i'll add in a whole stick of butter or 115 grams worth right away i'll turn down the heat to low and mention that i'm making what's called in french cookery a bermonte or mounted butter essentially i'm emulsifying cold butter into the smallest amount of liquid that i can i prefer to do that with a constant swirling maneuver like this but if you're not so dexterous with your wrist you can certainly use a whisk to keep that butter moving when it's finished a classic bermante should have a nice little nape consistency like this or it should be able to coat the back of a spoon if you cook too much water out of this sauce though it'll break a little bit and look kind of oily like this i did that on purpose that i could show you guys that it's actually a really easy fix just add in a splash more liquid and a few more pads of butter and then give it a swirl just like before and presto soft satiny bermonte next i'm gonna finish this sauce with a tablespoon or two of sour cream this is gonna bring a little bit of additional body to the sauce making it a little bit more substantial and it's gonna bring some beautiful acidity to balance out all that buttery fat once that's gently melted in over low heat i'll add in all of my blanched sprouts i'll give them a toss and a swirl to warm them through and make sure they're evenly coated with sauce then to make this that much more pro i'm going to hit them with a pinch of salt that's mainly for the sauce not for the sprouts then i'll add some chopped parsley and some finely minced chive upon further tossing here i'm a little unsatisfied with the amount of sauce so in goes another splash of stock and then a few more pads of butter swirly swirl and boom now i've got enough satiny butter sauce to both coat these sprouts and a little bit extra if i want to dip some bread into it from there i'm going to move these over to a warmed but not super hot plate and then top with the rest of my butter sauce and then finally some more chives and some more minced parsley you guys cooking vegetables with water usually isn't sexy they get mushy fast they lose a lot of their flavor to the medium and they just generally suck but blanching shocking and then pairing them with a subtle beautiful butter sauce hits pretty freaking different these are bright and snappy but also tender and very luxurious all at the same time this would be an amazing side dish for prime rib or pork roast or any simple unctuous roasty meat i hope you decide to try this one soon it's classically french and something that's mainly reserved for old school restaurants lastly let's roast some brussels to start i've got one pound or a half kilo of half brussels in the bowl here and i'm hitting them with a very long squeezer of olive oil let's call it three to four tablespoons worth then a very generous pinch of salt at least one tablespoon maybe more a quick toss toss to get those coated then right onto a bare sheet tray arranged so that the cut side is facing down this is going to ensure maximum surface area is touching the hot sheety next i'm going to load these into an extremely hot oven or 500f this is going to basically fry them on the outside and get them nice and tender on the inside i'll check back in 15 minutes while those roast i'm gonna make what can only be called a super condiment it's a bunch of very flavorful stuff all mixed up with lemon and olive oil and it's sickeningly good to make it i'll combine 10 grams of chopped parsley 10 grams of very thinly sliced scallions and then 10 grams of crispy fried capers to make these i preheated a nonstick pan over high heat then added in a bunch of olive oil about three tablespoons worth then in goes a whole jar of drained and dried capers i pressed these on a paper towel to remove as much of that extra brine as i could because as you can imagine that brine would pop and explode in the hot oil and you or i would have a very bad time because of it now i'm gonna give these capers a fry for four to five minutes over high heat or until they're golden crisp and dehydrated like this as you can see these shrink by about half so a whole jar of capers yields about double what you would need for this recipe behind the capers i'll add in 20 grams of chopped pickled golden raisins to make these i combined white distilled vinegar and sugar brought it to a boil and then added in my raisins the heat goes off and i'll let these marinate for about an hour or so i'll throw a detailed recipe as well as a link to a video where i made them in the description and i'll mention that i almost always have these in my fridge if you don't have them or if you don't want to prep them i would say sub in something like pepperoncinis those are fun next i'll grab a whole lemon and rip off all of its zest as you can see this is a pretty large lemon so if you've got small ones i'd say use two in that goes then i'll add in the juice of one of these large halves i'll start to get that evenly combined then in goes 75 grams of olive oil i'll stir that to get combined and yeah that's an herby citrusy sweet salty relish type thing it's got plenty of viscosity to grip the sprouts and make them taste truly exceptional speaking of sprouts after 15 minutes at 500 f i'll pull out my sheet tray so that we can take a look as you can see the leaves themselves were fully roasted to a crisp and the back sides of the sprouts have a ton of nice color the flat side is also very well browned and most of the stuff that you see here that's browned is also crisp almost like it was fried now to make this into a delicious final dish i'm going to scoop the trays contents into a medium bowl then i'll add at least three to four large dallops of my caper golden raisin relish and don't be shy with that add in a bunch then i'll grab some grated parmigiano-reggiano and add in a few strong grips finally i'll give it a toss toss to get everything nicely coated and then taste to confirm greatness we chef to plate this up i'm gonna pile it thoughtfully on my share platter just like i did for dish one and two then i'll top that pretty pile with some additional parmesan and then a few spoonfuls of this dressing or salsa or relish or whatever and yes that looks freaking delicious the brussels themselves are crisp fried looking and lack any semblance of the fart taste that most people associate with brussels sprouts and this dish is like cool as in it's something that you would find on the menu at a restaurant that you really want to go to i hope it gets you excited about the possibility of brussels sprouts and gets you in the kitchen making some very soon tag me with your results on instagram at brian underscore lagerstrom or just throw a message in the comments about whether you hated or liked these recipes and oh yeah let's eat this thing [Music] you

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 243,184

Keywords: brussel sprouts, brussels sprouts, brussel sprout recipe, how to roast brussel sprouts, how to cook brussel sprouts, raw brussel sprouts, how to blanch brussel sprouts, brussel sprout salad, brussel sprouts recipes, best brussel sprouts recipes, vinaigrette, brian lagerstrom, brussel sprouts in the oven, brussel sprouts with bacon, brussel sprouts with butter sauce, brussel sprouts side dish, weeds and sardines

Id: 1LlZJFfJyxk

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 08 2022