More Brussels Sprouts with White Bean Mash!

I think I have mentioned that ESFSW (my bf) have been trying to cook on Saturday evenings. It gives us a chance to cook together, enjoy a beer in the process as we prep food, relax and save a little money. If roommates are around they are welcome to join us. I enjoy cooking and it is some much better when I can do it for more than 1 person. We typically finish out the evening by playing some games or watching a movie. I know we could be hitting the town and painting it red, but honestly that is neither of our style's. And while we have made this a regular thing we don't ever mind rearrange plans to go out with friends!

Rough Recipe: Mustard Braised Brussels Sprouts (inspired from Smitten Kitchen's Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts)

Brussels Sprouts on their Stalks

Mustard (and no this isn't me making mustard!)

I would like to note that I am a lazy recipe follower and I didn't follow SK's recipe (linked above) directly because I didn't have heavy cream, white wine, parsley or shallots! And embarrassingly I had just been at the store and could have easily picked up these items. I had not actually looked at the recipe in great depth before my shopping trip (I also rarely make shopping lists!) I saw the title: Djion Braised Brussels Sprouts and said "Check!" Well there were actually quite a few items I needed in addition. So here is my version to the best of my memory:

Rough Recipe: Djion Braised Brussels Sprouts (inspired by Smitten Kitchen's Version)

Brussels Sprouts
Butter
Pearl onions/shallots
Stone Ground Mustard
apple cider vinegar
water
Sugar in the Raw

Clean and trim the Brussels Sprouts cut in half. Melt butter in skillet, when melted place Brussels sprouts cut side down in the butter and brown the cut side. Turn over to brown the other side. Add about a 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar with 1/4 cup water and a little bit of sugar (to tone down the strong acid taste of the vinegar), I use Sugar in the Raw, typically one package works well, aka ~ 1 Tbs. Really any sugar will do. This watered down vinegar sugar mixture is the substitute for the wine. Add thinly slice onions/shallots and mustard. It is best to stir the mustard in the liquid before adding the mustard so it is fully mixed. Now I used a generous amount of mustard, I am talking about almost an 1/8 of a cup. While I might be terrible allergic to mustard flowers I can't get enough mustard in my food however I do draw some lines. I don't do anything crazy like mustard peanut butter sandwiches...but I digress! So after adding the onions/shallots,

Rough Recipe: White Bean Mash (Tweaked from Nigella Lawson's White Bean Mash Recipe)...if you find yourself not being able to chew or want a simple white bean soup recipe check out this recipe.

Canned white beans + some of the juice (cannelli - not navy beans)

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Lemon Zest

garlic cloves

In a saute pan, dump a can or two (may want to go for the two to start off, once you taste this you won't be able to stop eating it!). Add minced garlic (I tend to add 3 to 4 large cloves personally!) and cook over medium heat until the beans are warmed through and begin to soften. Add some olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest. I love love love lemons, so I am rather heavy handed with the lemon juice. It is best to use juice from lemons not the stuff you find in those funny plastic lemons or in a bottle, but if lemons are insanely expensive or unavailable the bottled stuff will do. As everything cooks take a spoon and mash the beans as you stir. If the whole mess starts to look a little dry add a little liquid, I recommend some of the juice the beans came in or if you dumped that add some water. Once the mess is mashed enough for your tastes it is ready to serve (unless you were too heavy handed with adding liquid - let it continue to cook off). You may need to add salt to taste to bring out the flavors. 

~

White bean mash goes with almost anything in my mind and is as tasty if not more than mashed potatoes. If you like the dish I strongly recommend you reading Nigella Lawson's write up in here cook book, Nigella Express, because it is so descriptive and sensuous. We paired it with the Djion Brussels Sprouts and grilled steaks. The meal was finished off with a good malty beer (a brown ale).

Roasted Lemony Cauliflower and Cauliflower Greens

As mentioned in my previous post I purchased a beautiful cauliflower from the local Sunshineville Farmers Market. I had plans for half of it but it was huge and I knew that I didn't need that much curried cauliflower and potatoes and I had all these cauliflower greens that where sort of wilted and needed to be cooked if I was going to eat them. Yes you can eat the Cauliflower greens! Typically you don't get the greens when you guy a cauliflower head in the grocery store. But they are a real treat and taste just like the cauliflower but they are green, which adds a bit of color to a meal that could turn completely white depending what you are pairing with the cauliflower. I also had some onions that had been soaking in lemon juice + zest for days and needed a purpose. What else would anyone do but roast all these items together!

So I cut up the cauliflower into slightly larger than manageable bites and put them in a bowl, I then took the lemon infused onions and tossed those in on top. For good measure I added some more lemon zest and juice (one can never have too much lemon in my opinion!) and several cloves of minced garlic. A decent pour of olive oil, a exuberant dash of salt, and daring addition of white pepper and a heavy handed addition of dill. Taking clean hands toss all these items so that they are well mixed and everything is coated with lemon juice and olive oil. I then poured the contents of my bowl into a foil lined baking pan and placed it in a pre-heated 450 F oven. I roasted the vegetables for 35 minutes. I wanted cauliflower to bet a nice toasted color on top and decently soft - although not mushy! I also mixed the them half way through their roasting. The bits at the bottom can't hog all the olive oil!

I ended up eating these with some fish, which in retrospect went against my rule that meals must be colorful, but it was quite tasty. The left overs I continued to eat all by themselves over the next couple days. I must say the combination was best the night they were roasted but still delicious in the following days.