Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! Along with Santa Claus there is also a healthy French dish. Hard to believe since it seems that 89.3% of the entire world's supply of butter and cream is used to prepare French recipes but its true. Also true is the little known fact that 72.9% of all statistics are made up on the spot. While preparing dinner I was wondering what I could do fairly quickly and easily to go along with a more complicated recipe (French hamburgers, discussed in a separate post later). I remembered that I had some fresh Brussels Sprouts and I also remembered that every time I make a sprout recipe they always start with the basic recipe for blanching them. We always snitch a few after their blanched because they're so tasty. Voila! I knew what to make and here's the story of Choux De Bruxelles Blanchis (Blanched Brussels Sprouts).
You'll notice there aren't many photos with this one. That because it is really easy and quick and, quite honestly, I forgot to take a picture of boiling water. Hopefully your imagination will fill in the blank. It looked a lot like cold water except there were a lot of bubble coming up in it and smoke, errrr - steam, was floating around above it. You get the picture, right? See, I didn't need to put one here after all.
I started off by trimming off the ends of the Brussels Sprouts and then putting them into a large pot of boiling water for 8 minutes. We like our to be a little on the crunch side, soft but not mushy. Ten minutes would be plenty if you like them a bit softer. Remember when blanching you should use the largest pot you have so that the cold vegetables don't lower the temperature of the boiling water too much.
The only seasoning used was about a teaspoon of salt in the water. Once they were done they were drained in a colander (make sure it's over the sink -- duh) and then transferred right into a serving bowl. You could add seasoning or a dash of butter if you wanted but we like them plain like this and ended up not adding anything at all.
Hard to believe that it was a French dish without any butter or cream! It was nice and fresh tasting, a great choice when you're looking for a bit lighter fare.
Bon Appetit!
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