The humble sprout, that Marmite of veg, comes in for a lot of flack. But Walkers have created sprout-flavoured crisps, you can buy sprout-shaped chocolates, Asda sells around 140 million sprouts in the two weeks before Christmas, and the festive season just wouldn't be the same without them.
If you are yet to be converted, here are some recipes that make sprouts the central star, rather that sweeping them under the culinary carpet. The key is not to overcook them - you want just-done nuttiness rather than green sludge. Once you've got that sorted, they're amazingly versatile, pairing with many different flavours including chestnuts, potato and cheese, lemon, bacon, jelly and coconut. It helps if you source your greens fresh from local suppliers so try a farmer's market or Oxfordshire's own veg delivery heroes Cultivate.
Here are a few of our favourite ways to enjoy them.
This is based on a recipe by Meera Sodha in Fresh India, a fantastic cookbook for mixing English veg and Indian flavours. She describes this as "Kerala, via wintry England, on a plate" and this is true of many of her recipes. I've added leek and chestnuts to make the dish slightly more substantial, and kaffir lime leaves because I like them more than curry leaves.
600g Brussels Sprouts - wash and trim
1 leek
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
6 curry leaves
6 kaffir lime leaves
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1-2 red chillis, finely sliced
50g dessicated coconut
100g cooked, peeled chestnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp salt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
First, sharpen your knife. If you have a half decent knife, and you sharpen it with ten strokes on an easy-to-use knife sharpener every day it'll stay lovely and sharp and make all veg chopping much easier! (This is a Sophie Grigson tip and we're lucky enough to have her cookery school based in Oxford. She does gift vouchers if you're still short of xmas presents...)
Prep your veg. Shred the sprouts and the leek as finely as possible. To shred sprouts the easiest way is to chop them in half so they sit flat, then shred from the top down to the stem, so they stay together as long as possible while you're cutting.
Heat the coconut oil. Add the mustard seeds and leaves. When they're sizzling and popping, add the onion. Cook until soft and starting to caramelise. (Meera Sodha is very keen on cooking onion long enough - this is a lot of what gives curries a good colour and body.)
Add the garlic, red chilli, coconut and chestnuts. Stir fry for a couple of minutes until the raw garlic smell disappears. Then turn the heat up and add the sprouts and leek. Mix thoroughly.
Keep tossing and stirring for 4 mins. (I had to add a dash of water as it was sticking, because the coconut had mopped up the oil so effectively.) Then add the salt, lemon juice and zest, and keep cooking for 2 more minutes.
Sodha suggests serving with tamarind and caramelized onion rice, from the same book, but we ate on its own. It's very fresh, and really brings out the nuttiness of the sprouts.
Looking for a smart but unusual Christmassy canapé for your party? Look no further! The Sprout profiterole is here, and it's the very thing to surprise and delight your guests.
Crisp choux pastry, luxurious mashed potato, salty bacon nuggets and a tangy redcurrant jelly, together make a delicious and warming canapé that (as far as we know) has never before been released on an unsuspecting world. It is brand new for 2018, so get ahead of the game and get making.
Fillings:
1lb (450g potatoes) peeled, boiled and mashed with a bit of salt and pepper, 1tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp milk, a knob of butter/marg and a shave of nutmeg
Brussels sprouts - peel off any blemished leaves, either leave whole cutting a cross in the bottom, or slice. Microwave with 1tbsp water, for 4-5 minutes until done but still nutty. Drain. If whole, plunge into cold water to stop them cooking, then drain again after 5 mins.
Bacon - fry up some lardons or thin slices of smoked streaky bacon
Redcurrant jelly - Sainsbury's do a good one with a perfect balance of sweet, sharp and fruity. If you want it to go on smoothly, melt a little in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.
Heat the oven to 220C / gas 7.
Choux pastry is surprisingly easy to make and one of the best behaved (and most realistic finished article) of all pastries when making gluten/dairy free versions. To my mind it's that perfect combination of looking hard while actually being easy, so very good for showing off at parties.
To make it, melt the butter in the milk/water in a saucepan. Don't boil it - you don't want to lose any liquid, just make sure the butter is all melted.
Take off the heat and tip the flour in all at once. Beat very hard with a spoon. You want to get it all well mixed. It looks a little like scrambled eggs, but as you beat it it gets smooth, and the dough comes away from the sides of the pan.
Leave it to cool for 5 mins, so it doesn't cook the eggs when you put them in. Pour the egg mix in a bit at a time, and beat hard. Again it'll look like scrambled eggs, but it'll become beautifully glossy as you mix. (You can do this bit with electric beaters, which helps mix it all evenly.)
Take two baking trays - line if you want to, but it's pretty good at not sticking anyway. With two teaspoons, spoon walnut-sized blobs onto the trays. If you can, make them smooth-ish. Put in the oven and bake for 10 mins, then turn the oven down to 180C / gas 4, and continue baking for 15-20 minutes. When they're done they should be well-risen, come off the tray easily, and sound firm when you tap them. Slit them to let the steam out immediately, and place them on a cooling rack. You can make the slit where you're likely to halve them, or just make a small hole in the base.
When they're cool, fill with a small tsp of potato, a couple of bits of bacon, a whole sprout or some shredded bits, and top with some redcurrant jelly.
Variations
If you prefer, you can use chestnut puree in place of mashed potato. This goes well with the nuttiness of sprouts.
It should be perfectly possible to make this vegetarian, but you'll need a sharp tangy element in place of the bacon. Sour cream might be better than feta, to go with the redcurrant jelly. Experiment and see what you like.
For The Christembouche, make double quantities of the profiteroles, and construct a sharp cone out of cardboard. Place the profiteroles upside down in the cone, gluing together with redcurrant jelly as you go. Up-end, and take the cone off. Melt 100g sugar with 5tbsp water in a pan, to make a caramel/toffee. Drizzle this over the profiterole pile, to make a crunchy casing that's decorative but also helps hold it all together.
Giving Something Back
For those looking to make a difference during the season of goodwill, here's our charitable suggestion of the day:
Welcome to Daily Info’s 2023 Advent Calendar – 24 days of festive tips, free activities & local shopping suggestions!
This year's calendar offers a mix of Christmas suggestions, taking in traditions in Oxford and the wider area, and free activities & events in the build up to the big day.
