I had the best Brussels sprouts of my life last week at a lovely little restaurant in Brooklyn called Vinegar Hill House. It was just before Thanksgiving and it got me thinking about the dwindling stock of green food coming from the earth this time of year.
Winter eating can be depressing for a girl like me, but given the limits and challenges of cold-weather cooking, some pretty amazing stuff can pop through this kind of tabletop sorrow.
The sprouts were roasted in a bath of fish sauce, peanuts and palm sugar. So simple. There were seared to a crisp, both salty and sweet, and utterly satisfying. Someone declared the ultimate compliment, "I'm never making Brussels sprouts any other way." I totally agreed and went home to recreate them.
With sugar already featured in fish sauce, I omitted the restaurant's suggestion of palm sugar and in favor of achieving perfectly al dente sprouts, I skipped roasting them in the oven and simply sautéed them stove-top in a hot cast iron skillet.
This may just be the green side dish that will get us all through the winter.
Thai-Style Brussels Sprouts
serves 6-8
1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/3 cup chopped roasted peanuts
Trim and halve the Brussels Sprouts length-wise through the stem side. Set aside.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil and fish sauce. Add the Brussels sprouts and toss until thoroughly coated. Set aside for at least 5 minutes.
Put a 8 to 10-inch cast iron skillet over a high flame. When a drop of water dripped on the pan sizzles, dump the sprouts into the pan and then quickly arrange as many as possible flat-side down. Cook until most of the liquid evaporates, then begin to agitate the pan, flipping the spouts until most have a charred exterior, about 5 to 7 minutes total. Taste one; it should be crisp yet tender and well browned in spots
Toss with the chopped peanuts and serve immediately.
Related: Great Green Globes: 12 Recipes for Brussels Sprouts Lovers
(Image: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan)
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Comments (25)
better than Momofuku's with fish sauce vinaigrette?
I never thought of applying Asian flavors to Brussels sprouts! Any substitution suggestions for vegetarians - perhaps a toasted/hot sesame oil and rice vinegar? And scallions at the end?
I am totally trying this with my leftover BS's from Thanksgiving! Asian Bam!
That sounds like too much work to me. I think I'll stick with roasting them. It's simpler, and doesn't require standing around a hot stove "agitating" a heavy cast iron skillet.
There is some sugar in fish sauce but I don't taste it as the dominant flavor, so I wouldn't have left the palm sugar out.
Wow, cool idea. My fish sauce doesn't contain any sugar, so I'm going to add the palm sugar.
I love Brussel sprouts in any form, as long as they are not made with fish sauce. Any substitute?
This sounds amazing -- can't wait to try it!
I will always choose "seared to a crisp" over "perfectly al dente" for anything except pasta.
If I ignore that, both methods sound intriguing.
Agitating a hot cast iron skillet is nearly impossible.How in the heck do you get it up in the air high enough to flip anything.Still a nice recipe I will just find a different way to flip.
I'm surprised there's no acid in there, given the fact that all the brassicas work well with vinegar or lemon juice, and fish sauce is almost always paired with citrus or vinegar (I'd recommend coconut). Add some sugar, some finely chopped chile, scallions and/or shallot and you've got a very larb-like salad. To flesh (see what I did there) it out a bit, some lump crabmeat would go very well with the bitterness of the sprouts.
And the hubby looked at me funny when I put brussels sprouts in green curry last night :)
I'm totally trying this...but I'll add sugar to balance the fish sauce's overwhelming salty-ness.
love those napkins, where are they from?
I think the confusion with the fish sauce/sugar issue comes from not understanding this one difference. Fish sauce straight from the bottle and fish sauce that you've prepared at home to pour over veggies or to dip egg rolls in are different and yet are usually called the same, "fish sauce". But the one you prepare includes the stuff straight from the bottle, white vinegar, red pepper flakes, and sugar. At least I think that's how my Vietnamese descendant husband prepares it. I can see how the latter would pair perfectly with the sprouts.
What's with all the cast iron hate? Cast iron skillets are awesome!
Love this idea..need to do somethign different than my roasted variety.
Bookmarked! I love Vinegar Hill House. I had their pork chop once...delicious. Very good food, very friendly service, lovely atmosphere. So happy to see it featured here.
Fish sauce substitution = soy sauce.
Thank you, Ro.BsAs! That's what I usually use but I was wondering if the sprouts would taste similar as the ones in the recipe. Not that I would notice because I haven't tried the recipe and won't, not with fish sauce, that is.
Wow! This looks awesome. My kids actually might eat this if I spin it as Pad Thai. That's not the norm.
http://cookingwithjeanne.blogspot.com/2011/12/cooking-does-not-great-parent-make.html
I found this to be very very salty, and I did add a little sugar to balance it out.
I just made this last night. Added some shrimp and a bit of fresh lime juice. Delish! And the husband loved it too. (He claimed a couple years ago that he hated brussels sprouts.)
As a big fan of thai flavors, I was curious to try this recipe. It was tasty - I went with the dipping sauce vs straight out of the bottle type fish sauce (I tasted the sauce plain and it was spot on). However, the finished dish tasted in no way Thai whatsoever. On the plus side, for those concerned about saltiness, I didn't find it to be markedly salty.
i like the idea of it, and i tried the recipe and it had potential but it was too salty. i might play around with it... maybe adding sugar or using less fish sauce.
I wonder if this was the same restaurant that Louisa Weiss (Wednesday Chef) went to in her book My Berlin Kitchen. It sounds so similar! I made her recipe for Brussels sprouts from the book which is similar and it was amazing.