missionary work

When I discover someone I know is a picky eater or has an aversion to a certain type of food I take it upon myself to cure them of this unfortunate affliction.  I sometimes imagine it as my divine calling in life to prove that most things have the potential to be delicious when done right or maybe I'm just neurotic. Either way it gives me an excuse to tinker in the kitchen.

Unfortunately almost everyone has at least one food item that has gotten on their no eat list, even me (green bell peppers and black olives unless they exist on a supreme pizza or I'm being polite). Often the offending food is a vegetable, the most common vegetable on S^&$ list happens to be brussel sprouts.  Poor brussel sprouts haven't earned the bad rap on their own they've had the help of many cooks who were probably good cooks but they didn't have the Internet or the variety available to the modern kitchen and maybe, just maybe they believed in the idea that if it tastes bad it's probably good for you...  Anyway.. This post is being written for all the naysayers in particular one naysayer friend who didn't believe me when I said even the brussel sprout can be delicious.

The standard protocol for brussel sprouts is boiling them to death and dousing them in a helping of butter and pepper.  Unfortunately for the eater of these sprouts boiling to death does not bring out the best in in these mini cabbages.  Truth be known the longer you cook them the worse the result.  Baking however is a whole different story. It chars the little leaves and something magical happens. It tastes less like sulfur more like yum. (The sulfur is a cruciferous vegetable thing). Yum gets accentuated when you add the right accessories. The following is the recipe I used to make a believer out of my friend.

Ingredients:
Brussel sprouts - 1 lbs quartered or halved

Cherry tomatoes - 1 cup
Pine nuts or almond slivers - 1/4 cup
1 tbs butter
Prosciutto -  3 to 4 slices chopped up (optional)
Olive oil - 1 tbs~ish
Salt - to taste

Pepper- to taste


Directions
Set oven to 350deg F. Cut brussel sprouts into at least halves if not quarters. Put in 9x9 baking pan, add cherry tomatoes. Mix with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake for 45 min. During this time prep the prosciutto and the pine nuts. Chop prosciutto up, melt butter in a small pan on med low, add prosciutto cook till crispy. Fetch crispy prosciutto out of the pan and put aside on a non-meltable-paper-toweled plate. In same pan without cleaning up the porky, buttery goodness add pine nuts cook for a few min till lightly toasted, no more than than to a light golden color, bad things happen when you over toast nuts. If making a vegetarian friendly version omit prosciutto step.  Mix all ingredients together and serve to your favorite nonbeliever. 

 

in the begining

 

getting roasted

something crunchy

 crunchy, salty, nutty, tangy am I missing anything?