Day 331 - What's Cooking

 WHAT'S COOKING

Prompt - What's Cooking : Write something inspired by a favourite food or recipe

Sprouts have always had a bad press.  Often once of the most loathed foods of childhood, frequently the only part of a xmas dinner left aside.  Lots of work to prepare, with so little benefit it seems.  And, in the past few years, a certain kind of right wing nutjob has even sworn against them because of the 'brussel' appellation.   Crazies, but it does nothing to further these mini-cabbages' reputation.

But how many were turned off sprouts in their early years by simple bad cooking.  The overcooked pale green mush of the sprout that has been boiled to death is a food to avoid.  For this wee emerald gem to be fully appreciated for its worth it needs to retain it's shape and some notion of 'bite' when your teeth do their job.  (With one exception, which I will come to later.)  In my experience there are two ways of achieving this, although the best of these I have. sadly, only learned in the past few years, with the realisation that I have been missing out on one of life's great culinary experiences.

The best way to enjoy the more traditional sprout is steamed.  There is less risk of overcooking, and the flavour is more effectively retained.  For perfection they should be removed from the steam whilst still al dente, and tossed in a pot of melted butter and grated nutmeg.  With a little black pepper if you like a bit of heat, as I do.  Gorgeous.

And yet still a poor relation to the glorious discovery I made a few years ago.  I had a few left over sprouts in the fridge when I was preparing a tray of vegetables to be roasted.  Out of curiosity, for it's good to expand the variety in the dish, I added half a dozen sprouts.  Prepared as they would be for steaming or boiling, with the other leaves removed and their bottoms crossed.  They emerged slightly charred, well cooked, and spectacular to the mouth.  These were sprouts as I had never known them before.

So I Googles roast sprouts to discover they were very much a thing, and well recognised as a source of delight.  So what else could be done with them?  Risotto was the answer, and provided the exception I mentioned above.  Sprout and Stilton Risotto to be more specific.  Around sixty per cent of the sprouts are to be prepared as usual, except sliced into halves and then roasted until caramelising.  They get stirred into the near finished potage towards the end of cooking. 

 The remainder are finely chopped, and added to the mix shortly after the rice has been coated in the oils and flavoured with wine.  These add to the depth of flavour, while largely disappearing into the mix as the cooking progresses.  With the addition of a good blue cheese the end result is wonderful, creamy and full of flavours, with the charred demi sprouts the little nuggets of gold to be sought out.

Of course cooking risotto takes time, and isn't something I'd want to have to do every night.  So I tried to think of a way to get that sprout and stilton combo, but with a lot less effort.  Which led to me inventing the sprout and stilton pizza.  Not something that's commonplace in the wider world, as far as I can tell (although I have since blogged about it, so I hope it's something others have tired since...).  Purchase a ready made, good quality, margarita pizza.  I often use a sourdough base with tomato and mozzarella topping.  Prepare the sprouts as you would for the risotto, halved and roasted, but this time not to the point of being ready.  Cover the top of the pizza with crumbled stilton.  Dot the near-ready sprouts across the surface, and cook as usual.  The end result isn't as spectacular as the risotto, but it does have it's own charms, one of those being simplicity and speed.  

I now look forward to winter arriving and first bags of sprouts appearing.  So much deliciousness to look forward to...