Maple Mustard Brussells Sprouts

A few weeks ago at the markets, I spied a bag of brussells sprouts, and thought - hey, why not attempt to cook the world's most hated vegetable?

Actually, to be honest, I've never particularly disliked brussells sprouts. I've had some so-so ones that tasted a little strange, but I've also had ones that almost melted in my mouth in a cluster of texturey goodness. Mmm!

Arriving home with my stash, I thought of ways to cook the sprouts. I had seen a few recipes for roasted sprouts, and I seemed to remember seeing a recipe pairing brussells sprouts and maple syrup. I used the trusty Internet to find myself a few recipes, many of them for maple mustard sprouts. Using a couple of recipes as a basis for experimentation, I pulled out the gas burner and heated up the wok...

The results were yummy. And so they should be - I almost finished our bottle of maple syrup. Our little 237ml (8 fl.oz.) bottle of maple syrup, that cost $20 to replace. Why so expensive? Well, Neil says it's organic and tapped by naked virgins.

Ridiculously expensive maple syrup aside, here's a sort of vague recipe-ish type thing!:


Maple Mustard Brussells Sprouts



Maple Mustard Brussells Sprouts

Ingredients

a generous amount of olive oil and butter
brussells sprouts, trimmed and halved, or quartered if large
a generous spoon of dijon mustard
about a quarter cup of maple syrup
a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Method

Heat the oil and butter in a wok.



Brown the sprouts for a few minutes on each side, adding salt and pepper.



Mix the mustard, maple syrup, and cider vinegar, add to the wok, and cook, tossing often, until the sprouts are cooked through and the sauce sticks to the sprouts.

Serve, eat, and savour.

Food Toxins

The other day, I learned some things I didn't know about toxins in food from the Healthy Food Guide (November 2008). (Yes, I'm that behind in my reading!) To avoid various common toxins, the following steps are recommended:

Fruit seeds and pips
Remove seeds and pips of apples and pears before juicing. I guess this could have implications at juice bars!

Kidney beans
Soak for 4-5 hours before boiling in fresh water for at least 10 minutes. I knew this anyway, but I didn't know why.

Potato or Kumara
Avoid green or damaged areas of potatoes. Remove bruised or damaged parts of kumara before cooking. Don't eat if bitter-tasting when cooked. I applied this one when preparing my last lot of red (Maori) potatoes. I'll tell you what, it's hard to detect bad bits through such dark skin - it was only on peeling many bits that I found dry brown bits underneath!

Mould
Toxins from mould can permeate further into the food - including cheese. Hmm, there goes my (inhereted) "just cut it off, it's still good!" attitude...

Courgettes
Particularly home-grown courgettes can contain toxins. Never eat if bitter smelling or tasting. Well, if we ever grow any!

And last but not least:

Parsnips
Always remove the skin of parsnips. Don't use the cooking water from parsnips. This is the one that scares me the most because, especially recently, I've always left the skin on parsnips. I applied a mix of laziness and the assumption that, like potatoes, the skin would contain most of the nutrients, and therefore should be left on... I guess not.