When I started out to write this blog, my boyfriend warned me that naming my recipe “best Brussels sprouts evah” would not be a good idea. Not that I was going to! Even so, these are delicious and provide a nice alternative to simply drowning them in butter, which I admit is totally an option. I’m no Paula “Sweet Tea” Deen, but I do appreciate what a nice glob of butter can do for a dish. Call it my French influence via Julia Child.

The “why” of this dish is that soy sauce brings out savory flavors really well. Soy sauce and butter is naturally a great example, albeit one that generally takes a back seat to soy-chicken/pork/beef/fish. This is a lot like David Lebovitz’s roasted chicken where the soy brings out the savory character of the chicken, only with butter. (Cheers Paula!) The red wine vinegar is also in his recipe, for enhancing the flavor of the shallots he uses. Vinegar makes a tasty enhancer for these sprouts.

When it comes to picking out a soy sauce to having in your pantry I could go into far too much detail. At the least I will say that having a soy sauce from an Asian market is probably better. On the west coast I used Kikkoman brand, and discovered that the stuff sold in bottles at standard grocery stores had been watered down, or was less high quality, than the stuff being sold under the original label (in Japanese). ” キッコマン ” is the Japanese for those interested.

One last thing: I’ve been told that Brussels sprouts can taste horrible over-cooked. I avoided them as a child out of principle and started eating them as an adult so I’ve never had that experience. When you cook these just remember to keep an eye on them, this doesn’t take all that long to finish (including chopping) and will be perfect sooner than later.

Time to Make: 10-15 Minutes

Ingredients:

2 cloves of Garlic
8-10 Brussels Sprouts
1 T. Butter
1/2 T. Soy Sauce
1 T. Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Take the garlic, remove the skin, and slice into thin disks. Remove the bottom leaves from each brussels sprout and also any serious blemish. Cut off the stems of each brussels sprout and then cut each sprout in half perpendicular to the first cut as shown below.

Add the butter to a saute pan and turn to a medium heat. (You may use some light cooking oil to supplement the butter) Saute the garlic for a few moments and then add the brussels sprouts, making sure to keep the exposed cut sides face down. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and crack some pepper over the pan, stirring occasionally until the sprouts have browned.

Add the soy sauce and the red vinegar to the pan and cook briefly until the liquid is reduced down.

Enjoy!