Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers

Who knew that the cooking would be the easy part of blogging my way through Live to Cook? I actually made my first dish, Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers, a week ago but I've spent the past week setting up the layout of the blog, buying the domain, familiarizing myself with HTML, editing pictures, and of course writing this post. Phew! Hopefully most of that will be a one time setup and most of my time will now be spent in the kitchen.

I decided Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers would be the first dish I blogged about. I know, I know, Brussels sprouts don't sound like a very sexy dish but Michael Symon is trying to change that image with this dish. I'd never even eaten Brussels sprouts until this summer when I tried a different variety of fried Brussels sprouts at Bar Symon. Wow, I've really been missing out and I’m guessing you have been too! I've had Brussels sprouts prepared three different ways now and this is probably my favorite. These are definitely not the typical roasted or steamed version that you are probably used to. It is basically a fried Brussels sprout salad.

Here are all the ingredients

The first step was to prep the vinaigrette. Vinaigrette’s are so quick, easy, and cheap to prepare that I don’t understand why so many people buy the stuff in a plastic bottle. For the Brussels sprouts, Symon created a simple oil & red wine vinegar dressing flavored with garlic, honey, scallions (I substituted leeks), Serrano pepper, walnuts & anchovies. If you don’t like anchovies, don’t worry you won’t notice they are in the final product but they do add depth to the flavor of the vinaigrette.

I started by lightly toasting the walnuts on the stove top. You could also toast them in the oven if you prefer.

Walnuts toasting

While the walnuts were toasting, I minced the garlic, anchovy, leeks, & serrano chile. Once the walnuts were nicely toasted I removed them and gave them a coarse chop. You don’t want to chop them too much; the walnuts give the salad a nice texture. Next, I whisked the red wine vinegar, honey, & olive oil in a large bowl until they were emulsified. Then I mixed in the garlic, anchovy, leeks, serrano chile, & walnuts. I then tasted the vinaigrette and seasoned with kosher salt & fresh ground pepper.

 

The finished vinaigrette

While the vinaigrette flavors were melding together it was time to prep the sprouts. The first step was to heat the oil for frying. If you have a deep fryer, it would work great. If not, just fill a pot of oil on the stove top. Be careful not to overfill the pan. You need enough room to fry the Brussels sprouts without the oil spilling over!

I don’t have a deep fryer so I filled a medium sized pan ¾ of the way with vegetable oil and put it on the stove. I’m not sure how, but I misread the temperature Symon suggests heating the oil too. As you can see in the picture below, I heated the oil to 312 degrees while the book says 350. I didn’t have any problems at 312, but when I make this dish again, I will warm the oil to 350.

Not sure why I thought the temperature was supposed to be 312 degrees

I was inspired to make this dish first as soon as I saw the fresh Brussels sprouts still on the stalk at the farmer's market. I've never had Brussels sprouts that didn't come from the stalk, but many people have told me that they are drastically better than Brussels sprouts that have already been removed from the stalk.  

 Brussels sprouts still on the stalk courtesy of NUFM.
I’ve also recently seen them on the stalk at Trader Joe’s.

I was lucky to have my sous chef (my wife Beth) to help me prep the sprouts. She cut the sprouts from the stalk, removed the outer layers from each sprout, cut them in half or quarter depending on the size of each sprout, and sliced a notch at the base of each sprout. Try to remove as much of the stalk as possible when trimming them. The stalks are very fibrous and not pleasant to eat. Slicing a notch at the base of each sprout also helps make the sprouts more pleasant to eat.

  Cleaned & trimmed Brussels sprouts. Notice the notch at the base of each sprout.

Next came the fun part, frying! I don’t have much experience frying so I started out with a really small batch. I dropped a handful of Brussels sprouts in and let the oil do its magic.

 

The first batch of sprouts hits the fryer

After a few minutes, the edge of the leaves started to curl and turn brown. I removed the Brussels sprouts using a strainer and put them on a plate lined with a paper towel to drain. Once they had cooled a bit I tasted one. Delicious! Crunchy on the outside but a little soft on the inside. I was ready to move on to a larger batch.

  

  

Pot full of sprouts

I added enough sprouts so I could not see the bottom of the pan. Be careful not to add to many or they won’t cook evenly. The temperature of the oil dropped quickly when I added this many sprouts, dropping all the way down to 250 degrees. I quickly turned the gas up to get the temperature back up. Once the Brussels sprouts began to curl & brown, I removed them from the pan and placed them on the plate with the others to drain. I continued this process until they were all cooked.


The next step was to fry the parsley and rinsed capers. The book warns to be careful when adding the capers to the oil because they pop. As soon as I put the parsley in it popped & sputtered the way I expected the capers to. Then I added the capers and nothing happened. After a minute or two I removed everything from the oil and it was nice & crispy.

Parsley & capers popping & sputtering oil

The final step is to add the Brussels sprouts, parsley and capers to the vinaigrette and lightly toss all the ingredients together. 

Brussels Sprouts, parsley, & capers added to the vinaigrette

 All ingredients tossed together

After everything was tossed together, I tasted and seasoned with salt & pepper.

 

Final plating of the Brussels sprouts

This dish is definitely something I will make again. It was quick & easy to prepare and tasted amazing. The acidity of the vinaigrette provided a great contrast to the flavor of the Brussels sprouts and the walnuts gave it an earthy flavor and provided a nice crunch. Symon articulates in his book, the two most important things about improving your cooking are to buy better ingredients and improve your technique. This dish is a perfect example of where quality ingredients will make a big difference. Be sure to use a good quality extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. These ingredients impart a lot of flavor to the dish. I don't think it would be nearly as good if cheap vinegar and, most importantly, EVOO were used. Symon also suggests the recipe can easily be changed to other flavor profiles depending on what you are serving it with. It will be fun to play with the vinaigrette next time I make it.


Cost
I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.


It cost approximately $13.81 to make Fried Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Capers. The cost broke down as follows:


King Oscar Anchovies - $1
Organic Red Wine Vinegar (Olive Tap) - $1.42
Scallions (I subbed leeks from Killbuck Valley Farm) - $0.50
Walnuts -
Hojiblanca Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Olive Tap) - $4.70
Brussels sprouts (Amish vendor at NUFM) - $2.50
Parsley - $1.49
Capers - $0.85
Misc (canola oil, salt, pepper, garlic, serrano, Ohio Honey) - $0.25


Unless otherwise noted, all ingredients for this dish came from Heinen's


Nutritional information:
I am not a nutrition expert but I will provide some information about the key ingredient of each dish.

Brussels sprouts are members of the cruciferous vegetable family. These vegetables contain significant amounts of the antioxidants vitamin C and beta-carotene (vitamin A), and nitrogen compounds called indoles which may reduce the risk of certain cancers. They are a good source of vegetable protein, because 31% of the calories come from protein.