Brussels Sprouts Two Ways With Orzo

A few weeks ago I happened to be on my old grad school campus on a Wednesday, which happens to be the same day there is a small farmer's market on campus. Typically the market is breads, cookies and a few other items from Upper Crust Bakery and variety of produce, nuts, dried fruits and other products like honey and maple syrup from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania. A good rule of thumb for aspiring locavores out there is to never pass up a farmers market especially in winter. Fresh local foods are hard to come by and while the market was unsurprisingly dominated by root vegetables I did stumble across a recent addition to my repertoire: Brussels sprouts.

Early last year I embarked on what I called my foodie resolution. While I failed to systematically try or retry foods and post about them, I did grow a new fondness for many foods I previously never had or previously didn't like, blueberries being chief among the items I now love and previously was staunchly ambivalent about.

The two items that did make it onto this blog were Brussels sprouts and bacon and both happen to be in today's dish. Vegetarians, do not fret. I think this dish would be quite delicious without the bacon, but if you happen to be an omnivore and have some bacon in the fridge I would totally encourage it. Also please don't be daunted by the "two ways", I simply wanted to highlight the two things I like best about Brussels sprouts, but you could just pick one if you're crunched for time or wanting to keep things simple.

I "poached" half of the sprouts in butter and garlic until tender and soaked up the flavors. A friend made similar Brussels sprouts for me once and they tasted like a buttery vegetable version of a meatball.

The other half I shredded and roasted in the oven with bacon, olive oil and bacon fat until they turned crispy.

Finally I tossed it all with orzo, toasted pine nuts, sea salt, pepper, red chili flakes, oregano, basil, shaved Parmesan and fresh mozzarella. I particularly suggest fresh mozzarella because the flavor is killer, but the so is the contrast. The outside melts a little, but the inside retains its cool freshness. The best part, though, is that if you get the small balls of fresh mozzarella (ciliegine) they are roughly the same size as the whole Brussels sprouts!

In the end you get a fairly healthy dish dominated by the different flavor profiles of the Brussels sprouts with a little crunch, lots of cheese and lots of flavor.

Brussel Sprouts Two Ways With Orzo

by Leran

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

6017522

Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 1 pound brussel sprouts
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 4 strips bacon (optional)
• 1 pound orza (or other preferred pasta)
• 2 oz pine nuts
• 1/2 cup olive oil (if you're using bacon you can replace some of this with bacon fat)
• 1 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppered
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes

For garnish (all to taste)

• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Red chili flakes
• Parmesan cheese (shaved or shredded)
• Small balls of mozzarella (technically called ciliegine)

Instructions

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Toast pine nuts while the oven warms up.

3. If using bacon, cook diced bacon in heavy skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes. The bacon won't be fully cooked, but it will be in the oven for awhile. This initial cooking will ensure it gets crispy.

4. Trim bottom, yellow leaves and discolored leaves from sprouts. Wash well. Use half a pound if adding the butter poached sprouts, use full pound if made alone.

5. Using a food processor, grater or mandoline, shred the sprouts until they're individual leaves or Brussels sprout "confetti".

6. Toss sprouts with bacon, bacon fat, olive oil, chili flakes, sea salt, pepper and a bay leaf.

7. Roast until leaves brown and the mixture has a crunch to it. About 30-35 minutes.

For Butter Poached Brussels Sprouts

1. Trim bottom, yellow leaves and discolored leaves from sprouts. Wash well. Careful while trimming and washing to keep sprouts hole. Use half a pound if adding the roasted Brussels sprouts, use full pound if made alone.

2. Melt butter in the tallest, but smallest pot you own.

3. Add garlic and sprouts. Reduce to a simmer and cook until sprouts are tender, about 5 minutes, but no more than 10.

4. Remove from heat. Drain sprouts from butter. You can save the butter to use for garlic bread.

Assembly

1. Prepare orzo (or pasta of choice) regularly.

2. Meanwhile saute onion in olive oil, bacon fat or combination over medium heat until clear.

3. Mix pasta, onion and above recipes together in a large bowl with oregano and basil.

4. When serving add additional seasoning and Parmesan. Add mozzarella last.

5. Serve and enjoy alone or with bread.

Powered by Recipage

Pesto, Pesto Man... I've Got To Be a Pesto Man!

Pesto is wonderful. Not much else to stay. You take herbs and you mix it with garlic, cheese, olive oil and nuts. You have a wee bit of texture from the nuts, a rich herb flavor and some cheese. Really what's not to like?

I also find pesto to be amazing because it is so versatile. Delicious on sandwiches with fresh mozzarella, incredible in place of sauce on pizza or amazing on just simple pasta. Here is my recipe for basil pasta plain, simple, but fantastic. To be completely fair I adapted Ina Garten's which can also be found here. The only difference is that I prefer pine nuts so I used them in place of walnuts.

Basil Pesto

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Yields: 4 cups

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Pine nuts
• 3 tablespoons Garlic, chopped (about 9 cloves)
• 5 cups Basil leaves, packed
• 1 teaspoon kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black Pepper
• 1 1/2 cups Olive oil
• 1 cup Parmesan, grated

Directions:

1. Place pine nuts and garlic in a food processor.
2. Process for 30 seconds.
3. Add basil, salt and black pepper.
4. Slowly pour olive oil and processor is running.
5. Continue processing until mixture is pureed.
6. Add cheese and puree an additional minute
7. Serve in any way listed above or anywhere else you think it would be good! Store in fridge or freeze.

Bacon Bonanza #3: The BBC (Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese)

Now for the final recipe in the bacon bonanza. This one was inspired by my friend Lauren who told me I should ad bacon to mac & cheese. I could also say that this was inspired by another friend, Michelle, who I made mac & cheese with a few weeks ago. She suggested we add extra cheese and broccoli, which seemed painfully obvious to me after hearing it but for some reason I've never really done.

Thus the BBC was born: Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese. I hate to admit I used a box for the mac & cheese, but if it is any consolation it was a Trader Joe's variety! I am pretty confident I will be exploring homemade mac & cheese recipes soon enough so I may very well replace this at some point. But if you're a fellow grad student, undergrad or simply breaking the glass to grab that emergency box of mac & cheese here's a good way to jazz up your cheesy cheap dinner.

This was by far my favorite bacon application. The added texture, saltiness and slight meat flavor of the bacon really added to the whole dish.

Bacon, Broccoli and Cheese

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• One box of your favorite macaroni and cheese/shells and cheese/whatever shape and cheese. (I used Trader Joe's Organic White Cheddar and Shells. I highly recommend finding an organic variety. They're not much pricier and I like to think the cheese is real or more real despite still being a powder.)
• Milk (amount as specified by box... I really discourage using water if you want to a good creamy sauce)
• Butter (amount as specified by box... this really adds to any box brand. Why oh why do they claim this is optional?)
• 1 cup Cheddar cheese, grated. (I used a slightly sharp yellow cheddar, but you can pick what you'd like. I thought it was a good compliment to my white cheddar box flavor.)
• 1-2 cups Broccoli, chopped into small florets. (I used one head so unless it's tiny or massive just use one head's worth).
• 3-4 strips of Bacon, diced into bacon bits.

Directions:

1. Follow recipe on box.
2. After mixing in cheese mix, milk and butter, add additional cheese, broccoli and bacon.
3. Cook on low heat and stir until cheese has melted and broccoli begins to tender.
4. Enjoy!

Bacon Bonanza #2: Bacon Between Bread

One of my favorite things in the whole world is a good grilled cheese sandwich with real cheese, whole wheat or fresh baked bread and tomato. In many grilled cheese recipes I have found online, seen on TV or at restaurants I have noticed bacon included in some fashion. At some point I will write about my the glorious concoction we all call grilled cheese, but this is not that post. This is about using bacon in grilled cheese.

As one note about my general philosophic approach to grilled cheese is that the cheese MUST be the star. You can't be loading up the deli meats or the bacon, add one slice of cheese, grill and call your sandwich a grilled cheese. THAT, my friends is a MELT not a GRILLED CHEESE.

So on to the bacon. I wanted to make two sandwiches. Both almost identical except for the cheese used. My logic was to combine the sweetness of from white Spanish onions, the saltiness bacon and the fruity acidity of tomato to really accentuate the deliciousness of cheese.

My roommate thinks I'm over thinking these things. What do you think?

For first sandwich I used a sharp Wisconsin yellow cheddar. I thought this would be a nice classic approach to a grilled cheese. It was a quality sandwich.

For the second sandwich I used one of my all time favorites: brie! This was an excellent choice because of how brie melts, but I think it has notes of both salty and sweet in its flavor. Paired with the onions, bacon and tomato all the flavors really combined to pack an incredible taste. This was also one of my favorite bacon application both for taste and texture... in all that creamy brie a little bit of a crisp bacon was nice.

TECHNICAL NOTE: Do not follow the pictures for the cheddar sandwich unless you are really skillfull at flipping a grilled cheese. I made a huge mess and did something different with the brie, that I think is better. I kept it open faced and after the cheese was melt I then pushed it together on my plate.

Grilled Cheddar Sandwich

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white Spanish onion (or other sweet varieties), chopped finely
• 2 strips Bacon, diced into bacon bits
• Two slices bread (I used whole wheat. Use whatever you like, but a simple sliced white bread might not hold very well)
• Butter, enough to spread on inner side each slice of bread
• 1/4th lb Cheddar, sliced as thin as possible (this will make it easier to melt)
• 2 thin slices Beefsteak tomato (or another large variety)

Directions:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add onion.
2. Cook onion on medium heat until they start to become transparent, about five minutes.
3. Add bacon and cook until warm.
   


4. Place bread side by side in a large frying pan or skillet.
5. Layer cheese on both slices of bread. On one side layer tomato slice to cover the length of bread. On the other spread mixture of onion and bacon.
   
6. Cook on low to medium heat until cheese begins to melt.
7. Bring slices together. I recommend keeping the one with the onion/bacon mix as the bottom (imagine flipping that mess over!).

Grilled Brie Sandwich

Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white Spanish onion (or other sweet varieties), chopped finely
• 2 strips Bacon, diced into bacon bits
• Two slices bread (I used whole wheat. Use whatever you like, but a simple sliced white bread might not hold very well)
• Butter, enough to spread on inner side each slice of bread
• 1/3rd lb Brie, as much rind removed and sliced as thin as possible (this will make it easier to melt)
• 2 thin slices Beefsteak tomato (or another large variety)

Directions:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add onion.
2. Cook onion on medium heat until they start to become transparent, about five minutes.
3. Add bacon and cook until warm.
4. Place bread side by side in a large frying pan or skillet.
5. Layer cheese on both slices of bread. On one side layer tomato slice to cover the length of bread. On the other spread mixture of onion and bacon.
   



6. Cook on low to medium heat until cheese begins to melt.
7. Bring slices together. I recommend keeping the one with the onion/bacon mix as the bottom (imagine flipping that mess over!). I also recommend doing this on a piece of foil or a paper towel over a plate. While eating the brie will ooze out so being able to wrap it might be nice!