Amazing Brussels Sprouts

Amazing Brussels Sprouts, is one of my recipes that I adore. I have had many people ask for the recipe too, which is always a good sign, including my mate Ruthers this month. You will love this too if you are a Sprouts fan. It is savoury, spicy, bacony – in fact almost bubble & squeak like. Bring on the heart attack, this is a cracker.

I am going to make a very bold statement here and say that these are way, way better than the Globally know Chef Daniel Boulud (am I being as arrogant as he now?) – check this IsLifeaRecipe blog of his restaurant; HERE.

Be still my aching heart, well you need to mate as you are gonna get bombarded in a minute!!!

You will need – to make a huge sharing plate of Amazing Brussels Sprouts;

2 Kg washed and cleaned sprouts (easy just buy two bags of pre-cleaned in Cold Storage);
5 roughly chopped red onions;
3 finely chopped chili padi;
2 packs of bacon bits, or lardons;
3 tablespoons of finely chopped garlic;
Goose fat (Or as I did today as twas Christmas, I used the dripping from the turkey roast – thanks Stacy); and
Sea salt, and cracked black pepper.

Really easy, but do it this way for really really good results. This is the best folks;

Fill a large pan with water, whack in some salt, all the cleaned sprouts and bring it to a boil;
Reduce that and let it simmer for 5 minutes or so, you are NOT cooking until mushy. More like blanching;
Drain them and set aside;
Take your biggest, heavy fry pan and put in a few good glugs of goose fat, and get on the heat;
In with the onions, bacon, garlic and chilli and sweat that down – keep moving it round to avoid burning;
When the bacon starts to brown you are ready to add in 1/3 of your drained sprouts;
Worth noting here that there will be loads of oil from the goose fat and bacon. That will all be absorbed soon;
Lower the heat and have those sprouts get really cooked down, and absorb the oils and flavours. Use a masher then the are softened to squish them all up;
Add in the remaining 2/3 of sprouts and stir through to warm them all up for about 5 minutes;
Give another good pinch of sea salt, and crack of black pepper to your taste;
Serve up in a big bowl.