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

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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.

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Update, Excuses, Apologies and Cider!

I'm sorry dear readers for neglecting my treasured blog for so long. Many reasons have contributed to this (read on to discover some of them),  but overall I'll admit laziness was a large part of the equation. I know many of the folks who regularly read this blog have worked on blogs of their own so you know how it can be, but please please PLEASE don't mistake my laziness for apathy or lack of love for my fellow foodies. If it helps here is a cute puppy picture to show there is still lots of love:

I want a puppy! Though I'll take a watermelon, yum.

Everyone feeling good? Ready for the semi-legitimate excuses and exciting updates? Let's get it started!

Brunch Farm: I am excited to announce I have launched a little side project/business called Brunch Farm. The idea was originally to make it an eventual food truck, now I'm not sure what the end goal is except to bake some unique muffins and serve them alongside other brunch type foods using local and seasonal ingredients and sell them to incredible people at Grey DC and other similar events. Check out the link or follow us on Twitter @BrunchFarm for updates and future places to try our food.

Eating Mount Pleasant: Another exciting side project that launched this week is Eating Mount Pleasant. I live in an incredible little neighborhood tucked away in northwest DC with a wide range of food including Korean, amazing pizza and a wide variety of Latin American cuisines. My goal for the next year or two is to visit each of the 20+ eateries and write a review. I am going to revisit many of them to review their brunch/breakfast menus and other specialty menus. If  you're in DC or just curious, please check it out. Let me know if you want to come along, I'm always looking for dining companions!

RECIpage: I'm trying something new on the blog and using a service called RECIpage to better organize recipes, make them easier to share and print. Please let me know what you think of this, I hope it makes this blog more useful to y'all. There is also now a "Recipes" page on the navigation bar at the top of this site, all future recipes will be listed there for easy reference. Speaking of which it's cold outside so I think it's time for cider!

I'm not much of an alcohol fan. No particular reason except for taste, but I do like wine and absolutely love hot apple cider. This recipe is perfect for a party or for a long night in with a special someone. Just a little  red wine for flavor and, um, we'll call it winter cheer! You can make this in a slow cooker if you want to free up the stove or keep it warm for hours during a party, but I use a stock pot and it works just as well.

Hot Apple Cider Sangria

by Leran Minc

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Keywords: beverage vegetarian apple cider red wine Christmas Hanukkah Halloween Thanksgiving fall winter

Ingredients (serves 20)

• 1 750ml bottle of Red wine
• 1 gallon Apple cider
• 6 Cinnamon sticks
• 2 pounds Apple peeled and diced finely (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine wine, apple cider and cinnamon sticks in a stock pot on medium heat. Bring to boil and reduce to a simmer.

2. Add apples and cook until apples have softened. (optional)

3. Keep on lowest heat possible until ready to serve.

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Sweet Potato Muffins Take 2: Sweet Potatoes Muffin En Fuego

Fall is succumbing to winter here and so to keep warm I present to you the Sweet Potato Muffin En Fuego!

A few days ago I gave you the first installment of what will be Monthly Muffin. Almost immediately after making the Sweet Potato Muffin, I had the idea of making a savory spicy version of them. Inspired by Alton Brown's Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes, I set forth on converting my sweet sweet potato muffins to Sweet Potato Muffins En Fuego!

To do this first I reduced the brown sugar to 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup from the original 1/2 cup because while I was aiming for spicy/savory I didn't want to venture too fair away from delicious flavor the original muffin. Then I added 2 tablespoons each of chipotle chili powder and cayenne pepper. I picked the chipotle for the same reason Alton Brown did: chipotles are smoked jalapeños so not only do they add some heat they also add a slight hint of smokiness. Finally I added 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper.

Knowing this muffin would carry a kick and hoping it would be able to function as a side in a meal, I also made a Cinnamon Brown Sugar butter. The butter adds a nice little sweetness to it and helps with the heat, but is totally optional.

Three important notes on this recipe:

1. Last time I forgot to make or add the topping Pioneer Woman used in her pumpkin muffins. I highly recommend it for these. The extra sugar in both the butter and the topping help with the heat without masking it.

2. Both times I did not have ground ginger on hand and was worried about using fresh for baking so I cannot actually vouch for how the ginger will taste, but I still suggest it. In both versions ginger should be right at home!

3. In the recipe before I am going to suggest different amounts of brown sugar and spice than I did above. The way I made them came out with a really strong kick.

Sweet Potato Muffins En Fuego

Prep Time: 20 Minutes | Cook Time: 25 Minutes | Servings: 10-12

Ingredients

Muffin Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 6 tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger
• ½ teaspoons Nutmeg
• teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tablespoons Ground Cayenne Pepper (a.k.a. Ground Red Pepper)
• 1 tablespoons Chipotle Chili Powder (you can also use plain Chili Powder or other Chili Powders)
  
• 4 tablespoons Butter, softened
• 1 cup (heaping) Sweet Potato Puree (mashed/blended sweet potatoes. I don't think this comes canned!)
• ½ cups Evaporated Milk
• 1 whole Egg
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla

_____

Topping

• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg

_____

For butter:

• ½ cups Butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons Heavy Cream
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, pepper, cayenne and chipotle. Mix in butter until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together sweet potato, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour sweet potato mixture into the flour mixture. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Pour into a greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Optional Butter:

Using a mixer or food processor, mix ingredients together. If you like the really soft whipped butter you can let it continue for an extra minute or two. Depending how soft the butter is, you might need to finish mixing manually. Store in fridge and use on muffins or anything else! I also used it on pancakes with maple syrup. Yum!

As always I'd love your thoughts, suggestions and other feedback. At the very least let me know if you tried them.

Monthly Muffin: Sweet Potato Muffins

This is the first of hopefully many "Monthly Muffin" posts. Each month I am going to consult with Epicurious's Seasonal Ingredient Map. My rule of thumb is if a farmer is willing to drive to a farmer's market to sell his or her product then the area they hail from is local enough for me. In DC we often get farmers from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. After selecting seasonal ingredient(s) from one of these states I am going to find or create a muffin recipe for that season and share it with y'all.

This month sweet potatoes are the only seasonal ingredient in Maryland. That worked well for me because I was craving pumpkin muffins and sweet potato while providing a unique flavor, is typically a good substitute for pumpkin. So why trek out to Pennsylvania for pumpkin when my neighbor has sweet potatoes?

I was set on using Smitten Kitchen's recipe for pumpkin muffins, which I am sure are fantastic, but my friend Jane recommend Pioneer Woman's recipe--also for pumpkin muffins. If you're a die hard fan of the pumpkin, I surely plan to do these again with the intended ingredient.

Pioneer Woman used a cupcake style batter, but the s.p. adds some density that certainly makes me think muffin. She does though suggest a cream cheese frosting. I do NOT subscribe to the logic that frosting=cupcakes, but in this case it does push these more toward cupcake land. Frosting was nice, but totally unnecessary.

These muffins were moist, sweet, but not overkill that vaguely reminded me of my mom's sweet potato casserole (sans marshmallows). I can easily see this as breakfast or dessert. MY CHANGES: Aside from swapping pumpkin for sweet potato I also doubled the cinnamon (since I love cinnamon and almost always do this) and used brown sugar rather than white. I also misplaced my nutmeg so this time there was none. I also omitted the golden raisins. I may add them in next time, but I wanted to experience the spices and s.p. all by itself.

Moist Sweet Potato Spice Muffin (adapted from Pioneer Woman)

Prep Time: 20 Minutes | Cook Time: 25 Minutes | Servings: 10-12

Ingredients

Muffin Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Ginger
• ½ teaspoons Nutmeg
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons Butter,
• 1 cup (heaping) Sweet Potato Puree (mashed/blended sweet potatoes. I don't think this comes canned!)
• ½ cups Evaporated Milk
• 1 whole Egg
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla

_____

Topping

• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg

_____

For frosting:

• ¼ cups Softened Butter
• 4 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
• ½ pounds Powdered Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Mix in butter until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together sweet potato, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Pour into a greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Optional frosting (I actually prefer without):

Mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. Spread onto completely cooled muffins, or place into a large pastry bag with a large star tip and go crazy! Store in the fridge, as icing will soften at room temperature.

I actually preferred it without icing, but I wanted to try it out.