Have you ever met someone who is map impaired? If not, pleased to meet you. I can’t find a route on a map no matter how hard I try. I was thrilled when I got the PMS (Point Me System) in my car. It helped me get from here to there with little thought or skill. (I do know how to spell which is important when typing in the destination so there is a little skill involved.)
I have that feeling of being lost sometimes when I try to make a new food. I’m not sure that I am following the directions correctly and feel like I may be going in circles. There are times when I even reach a fork in the road and keep my fingers crossed that the ingredient I have chosen will lead me on a path to deliciousness.
Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Julia Child System (JCS) that you could stick to your stove hood that tells you how successfully complete a recipe? It could ding when you do something correctly and give you solutions when you screw something up. She could say things like “Oh Dear” or “Let’s give that another go”.
(My GPS tends to be a rebel when I am not listening and is always telling me to make U-Turns, drive down one-way streets and flip people off when I’m driving. Okay, that isn’t all true. She has never told me to go down a one-way street.)
The last few months, I have gone to numerous restaurants that are featuring Brussels Sprouts!!! Talk about no direction! To me, that micro-cabbage wanna be is nothing but a dead end! But I tasted some of the roasty toasty bits that were on my friend’s plate (I wouldn’t dare order them myself but am one for ignoring the caution light and hijacked a bite)….it was like a journey to vegetable heaven in my mouth!
They were sweeter than cabbages and because they were prepared roasted, the Brussels Sprouts were kind of smoky tasting too. I knew this was the proper route to learning to love Brussels sprouts!
Simple Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients
1/2 pound Brussels spouts
2-3 TBsp olive oil
1 shallot
Sprinkles of salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 450
Using a mandolin (or box grater or food processor with shredder), shred those Brussel Sprouts into a medium size bowl!!! (If they don’t look scary, they won’t taste scary.)
Shred the shallot.
Add olive oil and coat the shreds. They should look a little bit shiny or wet.
Spread on a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer.
Roast for about 10-15 minutes.
Sprinkle with salt immediately when they come out of the oven.
I will admit that I roasted the heck out of mine! I love the brown, crusty bits and it was the safest passage to help me learn to enjoy the flavor of a new vegetable.
Given the success of this first excursion, I may talk a walk on the wild side and not shred them. But then again, I am a firm believer of the saying that everyone who wanders is not necessarily lost.
