Fire Roasted Brussels

Written By Brad English

Oh my god!  I found the most amazing vegetable!  I don’t think anyone knows about it.  They are these little bulbs called Brussels Sprouts and I’m the first one to ever think of cooking them and eating them.

Ok, maybe not the first.

Boy are these things the hot item these days.  I bet they run out of favor soon because they seem to have exploded so big as THE gourmet side dish. I enjoy them, so I fear they may slide back into history and slowly emerge as that strange vegetable that is force-fed to children across the land.

I remember as a kid I wasn’t supposed to like them.  That probably has a lot to do with how they were served by my parents.  I called my mother to see how she served them to us and the phone went silent.  She finally said, “I don’t think I ever served them to you kids.  Maybe it was your grandmother.  We didn’t eat Brussels sprouts.”  Well, I know I ate them somewhere, so let’s blame Grandma!  We decided they were probably steamed.  I would probably like that today, and as I said, I sort of did back then.  I felt like I was a giant eating a whole head of cabbage or something.  Pretty funny!

But today is a different story.  We don’t steam them anymore.  We roast them, or pan fry them to the point where they are both moist on the inside and crispy on the outside.  In fact, we treat them more like a pizza than a vegetable.  I always nail them with high heat and give them the business and they are so thick that they can withstand it all and still give something great back to you.

What better way to cook these little babies than in a 900 degree wood fired oven?  Let’s see what we can do here.

 

Wood Fired Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts

– Brussels Sprouts

– Bacon or Pancetta

– Chopped Red Onion

– Olive Oil

– Balsamic Vinegar

– Salt and Pepper

 

The sprouts:

Clean the sprouts by trimming off any browned bits at the base and pull off any browned leaves.  I par-boil them for a minute to get them soft, but not done.  Let them cool and then cut them in half.  This allows you to brown more of them up when cooking.

 

The bacon and onions:

Separately, chop up some bacon and red onion, or shallots, and sauté them until they are only “mostly done,” that is, till they wilt and the bacon renders off a lot of fat but has not yet crisped .  They too will finish in the oven.

In a bowl, combine the sprout halves and bacon/onion mixture and drizzle with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Sprinkle a little salt and pepper to taste and toss.

Put the sprout mixture back into the iron skillet and slide it into the WFO.  900 degrees F. gets the pan hot and these things cooking pretty fast.  Don’t worry, there’s time to sip your beer.  You did open a beer, right?  Do I have to include that in the ingredient list?

Brown them.  Char them.  Toss.  Back into the fire.

Make sure to get the enough of them charred up.  The burnt tips/edges provide a ton of flavor as well as a crisp texture to contrast with the softer interior.

These make a great pizza topping.  I even created a pepperoni seasoning that I sprinkled onto my sprouts once and created my own vegi-pepperoni – *LINK.  The slight bitterness of the sprout gives it some bite and stands out against the sweet balsamic and saltiness of the bacon and seasonings.

Enjoy!