Beach House Brussel Sprout Breakfast
When I am tasked with regularly cooking up brunch items for weekend breakfasts at the beach house, I try to stretch my repertoire passed bacon, pancakes and eggs. On this particular weekend, I had lugged along a bag of Brussel sprouts and then ran out of opportunities to cook them for dinner. At a Beach House you have to be flexible and use your fresh ingredients when they are at their maximum. As a result, this dish was born. J2 thought that it tasted like the Brussel sprouts on the Segovia menu and I couldn’t think of higher praise than that.
I love using my Mom’s mandolin for jobs like this. My kids always called Brussel sprouts, baby cabbages. They actually ate them as youngsters.
Check out this nutritional info about Brussel sprouts (from http://www.brussels-sprouts.com/): They are a very good source of many essential vitamins, fiber, and folate. They are especially high in Vitamin C. They, along with their other cruciferous cousins, have been shown to have some very beneficial effects against certain types of cancer, as they contain many different ingredients that are believed to help prevent the disease.
- 1 strip bacon, chopped
- 1 - 1½ lbs. Brussel sprouts, sliced by hand or on mandolin
- ¼-1/2 c pecans
- 2-3 T maple syrup
- eggs, 2-3 per person
- Sautee bacon until crisp over medium high heat.
- Add sprouts and cover.
- Do not be tempted to turn these too over, you want the sprout to caramelize in the pan.
- When the leaves are tender to taste add the pecans and maple syrup and allow flavours to blend, likely another 5 minutes.
- Line the bottom of large soup bowls with sprouts.
- Keep bowls warm in oven.
- Baste/fry eggs and as soon as the top is cooked, immediately place a top the sprouts.
- Serve immediately.
The combination of pungent sprouts, salty bacon, nutty crunch, sublime maple syrup and the rich oozing of the egg yolk make this one a keeper in my mind.
Kath’s quote: “We kids feared many things in those days – werewolves, dentists, North Koreans, Sunday School – but they all paled in comparison with Brussels sprouts.”-Dave Barry
Love-that is all.