It’s time to change sprouts’ bad rap (Alamy/PA) Brussels sprouts have had it rough. Horrifically mistreated throughout the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, for too long we threw them into boiling water and left them to wilt, stew and practically dissolve. In the process, generations have grown up thinking sprouts […]
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Brussels sprouts have had it rough. Horrifically mistreated throughout the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties, for too long we threw them into boiling water and left them to wilt, stew and practically dissolve.
In the process, generations have grown up thinking sprouts are disgusting, an inedible hell only to be endured on Christmas Day.
“I still have nightmares now, watching my mum on Christmas Eve criss-crossing the bottom of the sprouts,” remembers chef Gordon Ramsay, author of Ramsay In 10 (Hodder & Stoughton, £25). “The minute she blanched them they blew up – all the leaves had separated.”
I love me some crispy Brussels sprouts
We’ve moved on now though, haven’t we? In recent years the much-maligned, iron-packed brassica has had something of a renaissance among celebrity chefs, cookbooks, restaurants and, increasingly, home kitchens. It has slowly been discovered that they don’t need to be boiled to smithereens. They can be fried! Roasted! Shredded! Eaten raw in a salad! Who knew?!
With one foot in tradition, Ramsay will admittedly still part-blanch his sprouts – but then he’ll “roast them with the most amazing, caramelised shallots, and finish with pancetta”.
“The great thing about sprouts is that you can cook them in lots of different ways,” says Lucy Brazier, author of Christmas At River Cottage (Bloomsbury, £22), who also blanches them. “What you need to do is cook them at the last minute, just before you’re about to eat them – chuck them into boiling water and do a couple of minutes, so they start to soften but not go too soggy. And then if I’m doing them with chestnuts, I’ll stick them in a pan with the chestnuts, and fry them off for a couple of minutes as well, so you get some nice crispy edges.”
