Brussels Sprouts With Bacon And Apple Butter

In the restau­rant, we deep-fry the Brus­sels at 350F for about 2 min­utes. At home, you could broil or roast at high heat after toss­ing in cook­ing oil and sea­son­ing. 450 degrees for 10 – 15 min­utes. From there, dress cooked and charred Brus­sels as desired.

Cur­rent­ly, we toss ours with a bacon jam — bacon, mire­poix, mus­tard, hon­ey, sher­ry vine­gar and such, stewed togeth­er into a spoon­able condi­ment and serve over a savory apple purée. For the home chef, a sim­i­lar fla­vor can be achieved by toss­ing the Brus­sels with cooked bacon bits and the ren­dered bacon fat and top­ping with the fol­low­ing sauce reduction:

WHAT TO DRINK

Our 2017 Sparkling is made from Pinot Noir and is bright and live­ly; Brus­sels Sprouts are fried and served with a stel­lar con­trast of savory bacon jam and apple but­ter. Togeth­er they com­bine for an epic indul­gence that you just can’t beat!

APPLE CIDER SAUCE

makes about 2 cups

3 cups apple cider

½ cup good, local honey

2 cups apple cider vinegar

salt to taste (pinch+)

Com­bine all ingre­di­ents, bring to a sim­mer and then reduce heat to low and cook down until syrupy (about 20 min­utes). Cool and refrig­er­ate. Use any left­overs as a base to dress root veg­gies, shred­ded cab­bage, roast pork, poached shrimp etc.

SAVORY APPLE PURÉE

2 cups of cored, peeled and sliced bak­ing apples (like granny smith, Hon­ey­crisp or Jonathan)

splash of apple cider vinegar

splash of water

pinch of salt

Pre-heat your oven to 250F degrees. On a bak­ing sheet, toss the apples with the apple cider vine­gar, water and a pinch of salt (we don’t add sug­ar to the purée as the Apple Cider Sauce is on the sweet­er side and we want to keep this a savory dish). Cov­er and bake until the apples are super ten­der and fla­vors have con­cen­trat­ed. You’re done when the mois­ture has baked off and the apples’ col­or has turned a deep­er shade (about 45 min­utes). Mash with a whisk for a chunki­er style or use a blender to cre­ate a smooth texture.

TO ASSEM­BLE YOUR BRUS­SELS SPROUTS

Toss about a half cup of Apple Cider Sauce for every 2 cups of brus­sels sprouts and bacon. Spoon the Savory Apple Purée onto the bot­tom of your serv­ing dish and top with the Brus­sels Sprouts, sauce and bacon mix­ture. Enjoy!

A NOTE FROM THE CHEF

For the brus­sels sprouts, pare the stem off a bit to lose some of the fibrous bits. Depend­ing on the size of your sprouts, halve or quar­ter them. Or if you’re on the fence, halve and slit through the core of each half (mak­ing that thick/​tough part small­er to keep cook­ing even- keep­ing the rest of the sprout intact).

Anoth­er vari­a­tion we’ve served in the past is to toss the Brus­sels with chopped bacon, toast­ed hazel­nuts and crum­bled blue cheese. Driz­zle with a mix­ture of banyuls vine­gar reduced down with sug­ar and toss in your choice of fresh herbs, pars­ley, scal­lions, thyme etc.