I know, you are actually surprised. Southern food gets a bad rap for being unhealthy, but when you think about it, Southern food at its roots is the quintessential farm-to-table, fresh ingredient cuisine - it just also happens to involve a lot of butter, flour and sugar. I tore out 7 or 8 recipes from the September Southern Living, including a collard green carrot salad, roasted turnips and a warm cabbage slaw. Besides the cover-photo Apple Cake that I am determined to make paleo, the recipes from Southern Living already were paleo and aren't going to fit the bill for a "Making it Paleo" post.
Never fear, Bon Appetit is filled with recipes teeming with gluten, dairy, refined sugars and soy. I follow a number of chefs on instagram and it always amuses me that the meals they make at home for themselves and their family are usually always paleo-compliant, but the ones they serve in their restaurants are chock-full of all those things they apparently avoid on their own. Bon Appetit is basically a collection of their restaurant recipes.
I love brussels sprouts cooked in any manner, steamed, roasted, fried, shredded in salad, etc, but even those people that hate brussels sprouts will devour them when they are 1. crispy and 2. either cooked with bacon or smothered in a sticky-sweet Asian sauce. I decided to take the opportunity to combine the two in remaking the Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Chile Caramel Sauce recipe from the September Bon Appetit magazine. The recipe is part of a section of the magazine where readers request recipes from restaurants they love. This one was requested by a Nashville couple from a restaurant in Austin called Uchiko. However, if you have had the pleasure of having the brussels sprouts at Two Ten Jack in Nashville, these are about spot on. They were awesome alongside an easy asian-marinated pork chop for dinner and then awesome again for breakfast with leftover pork and poached eggs.
The ingredient list changes I made were using bacon fat in place of vegetable oil, coconut sugar in place of white sugar, and making sure to use Red Boat Fish Sauce, which is free of "added water, preservatives or MSG" (buy a big bottle on Amazon). The major cooking change is that I chose not to fry my Brussels Sprouts because a) they can get pretty crispy when roasted in the oven b) frying is messy and c) it just seemed to be an unnecessary unhealthy option.
Paleo-fied Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Chile Caramel Sauce
Serves: 4
Prep + Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients:
2 tbsp bacon fat, divided
1 small shallot, coarsely chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 red or green Thai chile, halved
1 lemongrass stalk, tough outer layers removed, cut into 1" pieces
1 1" piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced into rounds
1/2 c Red Boat fish sauce
1/2 c Coconut Sugar
1/2 c water
1 lb. Brussels Sprouts, trimmed, halved
Lemon Wedges for serving (optional)
Instructions:
0. Prepare all ingredients as listed in the ingredient list.
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Melt 1 tbsp of bacon fat in microwave. Toss Brussels Sprouts with bacon fat and lay cut side down in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet. I use a roasted pan, because then I can do my tossing and baking in the same vessel, eliminating an extra dish to be washed.
3. As oven continues to pre-heat, heat 1 tbsp of bacon fat in skillet on stove over medium-high heat. Put Brussels sprouts in oven. "Add the shallot, garlic, chile, lemongrass, and ginger and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 6-8 minutes. Stir in fish sauce, scraping up any brown bits. Stir in sugar and 1/2 c water and bring to a boil; cook, stirring occasionally. until reduced by half, 12-15 minutes. Strain sauce into a bowl; discard solids."
4. Remove Brussels sprouts from oven. At this point, the outer layers of the sprouts should look be crispy, if they aren't keep them in the oven. It usually takes about 20-25 minutes.
5. Drizzle Brussels sprouts with sauce and enjoy!
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