BRUSSELS SPROUTS ROASTED and Reflections at 6 am

6:00 AM:  I woke up at 5 and soon realized I might as well get up.  I don’t really feel like reading so early in the morning but I don’t mind blogging.

So I decided to share the Brussels sprouts recipe from our dinner last night.  We had:

Pork Roasted in Milk (Arrosta di Maiale al Latte)

Apple Mashed Potatoes with a Bacon & Onion Garnish

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Dates & Candied Orange Peel

The milk was supposed to almost totally evaporate and transform “into an exquisite sauce”.  Well, I figured 4 cups of milk would not evaporate enough so I put in only 3 cups, but still had LOTS of curdled liquid at the end.  The pork was very good though.

The Apple Mashed Potatoes were good, but potatoes without apples are  just as good, if not better.

The Brussels sprouts,  however, were exceptional.  I’ve always boiled them before, but roasting does work better. 

ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS with Dates and Candied Orange Peel

        Based on recipe in GLOBE & MAIL, Feb. 15, 2014

1 large orange

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

¾ lb Brussels sprouts

3 strips bacon

½  tsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

Pepper

3 dates

·        Peel the orange very thinly.

·        Bring sugar and water to a boil.  Reduce heat and add the orange peel.  Simmer for 30 minutes and drain.  When cooled, cut about a tablespoon of the orange peel into small pieces.

·        Trim Brussels sprouts and cut in half.  Put in single layer in a 9x9 baking dish.

·        Using a pepper shaker, sprinkle sprouts with pepper.  Also sprinkle on the olive oil and the salt.  Stir to coat the sprouts.

·        Dice bacon and distribute over the sprouts.

·        Chop the dates and add to the orange peel.  Set aside for a garnish.

*Prepare to this point and leave it until 40 minutes before serving time.

* Now, preheat oven to 375 or 400.  Either one will work so just choose according to what else you have in the oven.

* Roast sprouts, uncovered, for 30 minutes.  REMEMBER to stir in the dates and orange peel before serving.  (To make sure I don’t forget, I put the garnish by my plate on the dining table. J)

**The first time I followed the recipe – it said to roast at 375 for 40 minutes.  That’s a bit too long.
***Use the leftover orange peel as garnish the next time you make the sprouts or try it on other vegetables such as broccoli.
****If you don't like to throw away the orange sugar sauce, use it to make Raisin Self-Saucing Pudding.  Just add raisins and 1 and 1/2 cups boiling water to it when making the sauce and don't use the brown sugar and vanilla.  http://eleanorstadnyk.blogspot.ca/2014/04/april-9-1990-moms-letter-and-raisin.html

*************

P. S.  Last night I found this bit about what Mom was thinking about on April 6, 1977: 

we still did not get the chicks perhaps at the end of the month Shirley is getting hers May 13^th shes getting 150 chicks we if we get any we will get only 50 chick and few geese

Mom was just about the same age then as I am now, but, when she got up in the morning, she wouldn’t have had time to think about what she felt like doing.

P.P.S.  from Mom August 31, 1989

On Tuesday I was blanching broccoli and sprouts and froze them.