Are you ready to hear about how fantastic this dish is? OM Gosh!! It was – truthfully – the star of our Thanksgiving dinner. I asked, while we were finishing up our meal, what was everyone’s favorite – and of course, the children said pumpkin pie – but the adults all said “the Brussels sprouts!” And yes, these are COOKED Brussels sprouts, not raw, even though it’s called a slaw.
This is where the recipe came from . . .
I told you about this cookbook, The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century
So impressed with how the book was written and how it was researched that I wrote up 3 posts about it last year, 3 posts over 3 days – here, here and here. At that time I’d really just started reading it – that was mostly the pink post-it notes you see above. In between times I inserted some more of the yellow hue. And recently I’ve been trying to go through the rest of it (I’m not done) and I’m on to purple post-its. The bookmark at the back is where I am (obviously). When I read a recipe I think I want to try, I write an upside-down post it (meaning the sticky part is at the bottom) and I write on it a quick title then attach it as a flag. So if I’m in a hurry, I can sort-of scan the flags to see if anything suits my fancy.
There’s another view. Maybe 20% to go, do you think? And part of that back part is an index, so maybe I’m closer to the end than I think! Sometimes I do breeze on by a few recipes – at the moment I’m in the candy section, and I just about never make candy, so there aren’t many flags in this chapter. But invariably I find something every few pages.
So, when I was planning dinner for Thanksgiving Day this year, I did go look at the flags. I’d already decided to do asparagus (the crumbled asparagus – that’s not in this book – 
that my whole family loves) and I wanted something new for Brussels sprouts. I found it here. And oh, am I glad I tried this recipe. It is SUCH A KEEPER!
Until a few years ago I really only prepared Brussels sprouts one way – a cold Marinated Brussels Sprouts Salad. But I’ve been ever so glad that chefs ‘round the world have begun giving B.S. their just due. I love the things, and I think one of the ways I’ve made it (with cranberries) is on my “Favs” list. This one is going on there too.
Truthfully, though, my daughter-in-law, Karen and our daughter, Sara, made the recipe. I can’t take any credit other than selecting it, bringing along the cookbook (we were at our Palm Desert house for the weekend), providing the herbs, butter and mustard. Karen brought 2 pounds of Brussels, and we in the kitchen contemplated that perhaps 2 pounds was too much for one dinner (there were 9 of us including 3 children). Am I glad we didn’t listen to that nonsense. There’s about 2 tablespoons of it left over, and I can’t wait to eat it! We did make one change – we used half of the butter called for. Amanda Hesser wrote a note about it – she halved it also, so that’s the recipe I’m including below. We used all the seasonings, but half the butter.
The most complex (read: time consuming) part was finely slicing up the Brussels sprouts. We could have used a mandoline, but many hands made fairly quick work of the pile of cleaned and trimmed little cabbages. Karen mixed up the butter – with the herbs and mustard (good, imported Dijon style) and the lot of it is cooked briefly (about 5-7 minutes) and it’s done. Do cook it to your desired done-ness. Some folks prefer a really truly cooked Brussels sprout – if so, cook it a bit longer. The recipe is a bit vague, suggesting you start with 5 minutes and cook just until it’s “done.” You can add caraway seed if you want, but we used celery seed and I thought it was a fabulous counter-taste in it. The lemon slices are also an important element – DO squeeze some of it onto each serving or serve the lemon wedges in the bowl.
What’s good: everything about it. The just mild crunchiness of the leaves. The celery seed. Well, the butter of course. The mustard, you might think, would overpower the Brussels sprouts, but it truly does not. The herbs are lovely too, and the lemon juice squeeze over the top. I loved every single bite I had, and I’ll definitely be making this again. For guests or not.
What’s not: nothing, whatsoever. DO make this dish!
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Brussels Sprouts ‘Slaw’ With Mustard Butter
Recipe By: adapted slightly (less butter) from The Essential New York Times Cookbook (from Julia Reed, Oct. 2002)
Serving Size: 5
NOTES: If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, place the celery or caraway seeds in a small plastic bag and pound the bag until the seeds have more-or-less gone to powder.
4 tablespoons unsalted butter — at room temperature (this amount is halved from the original)
1 large clove garlic — put through a press
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard — or whole-grain Meaux
3 tablespoons minced green onions
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound brussels sprouts
1 teaspoon celery seeds — or caraway seeds, bruised in a mortar
Lemon wedges to squeeze on each serving (IMPORTANT)
1. Place the softened butter in a medium bowl and add the garlic, mustard, green onions and parsley. Mix well. Add more mustard (we didn’t) and salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
2. Trim the root ends of the sprouts and remove loose or discolored leaves. Cut the sprouts in half and then crosswise into fine shreds. (Do not use a food processor; the leaves will be too fine.) Melt the mustard butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté the sprouts until tender, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat and stir in the celery (or caraway) seeds, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the Brussels sprouts are cooked to your desire of crispness. (We cooked it another 2-3 minutes, but the leaves were still just barely crunchy.) Serve with lemon wedges. The lemon adds an important counterpoint to the dish – don’t eliminate that if at all possible.
3. NOTE: If you don’t use all the mustard butter, it may be stored, covered, in the refrigerator or rolled into a cylinder and frozen until needed.
Per Serving: 125 Calories; 10g Fat (65.2% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 25mg Cholesterol; 99mg Sodium.
Karen
said on January 27th, 2013:
Tried food processor for slicing the sprouts tonight, worked great!
No kidding? I wouldn’t have thought that would work well, but I’ll have to try it! Thanks! . . . carolyn