Oh boy, I had a shock when I saw that it was the 1st of March the day before yesterday. It can’t possibly have been that long since I last made a post, can it? My last post was on the 21st of February which means that was… 10 days ago? Then I realised that I was being very silly and February only had 28 days so it’s not quite as bad as I’d thought, although my posting has been rather sporadic, as has my visiting everyone else’s wonderful blogs whom I follow. My apologies if my drop-ins are rarer than they used to be. Time does seem to get away from me so fast, and so easily these days.
Before I forget as well, I’ve got a nifty new logo! If it’s showing up weirdly for you then you may need to force-refresh your browser cache for my page (Chrome: Ctrl+F5, Firefox: Shift+F5). I decided it was high time I ditched those huge colourful banners I had which looked like someone had spilled a paint pot over the screen. Thanks to the lovely Shuhan – yes, the “Mummy I Can Cook” Shuhan – I now have a lovely, “simple” logo, instead of something which smacks you in the face as soon as the page loads!
One of the things which I’m relishing about living up here now, and surely will do even more come summer and autumn is the difference in produce which is available compared to France. Sure – I sorely miss readily available, cheap Mediterranean vegetables like aubergines but heck if the choice of things here doesn’t make up for it. Let’s start off with a few examples of…
Berries
I can’t wait for autumn to roll around so I can go out and pick some of these. I hope I can find my own little spot in the forest somewhere ripe with cloudberries. Only problem is they love growing in marshy ground so it’s a real mosquito-fest out there. Arctic raspberries are apparently quite rare but lingonberries and bilberries should be plentiful. Sea buckthorn doesn’t grow this far up north in the country as far as I know, but I should be able to buy some from further south. It’s going to be awesome!
I may complain about the price of aubergines here but we do get some other fun stuff to make up for it. I saw a sack of purple brussels sprouts the other day for about 3kr. For those of you who don’t know, that’s about US$0.46, €0.33, or £0.27. Cheap, basically. I didn’t even know purple sprouts existed, and while I didn’t really expect them to taste different I figured they’d be a fun thing to cook with.
So, what do you do when you have some beautifully-coloured vegetables?
Curry-Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Why, roast the heck out of them so it’s impossible to discern any colour of course! Nah, you could still make out a bit of the purple, but nowhere near as much as if I’d served them steamed or raw, shredded. Oh well – they were still tasty!
I got the idea for some curry-roasted brussels sprouts the other day after reading Nazneen’s blog, Coffee and Crumpets. She’d made some delicious looking curried sprouts, and it was a great inspiration. I knew I wanted something with a bit of curry kick, but wanted a slightly different dish and thus these were born. They make a great side dish for anyone who likes sprouts, especially if you’re bored of eating them simply boiled or steamed all the time.
Curry-Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients
- 500 g Brussels Sprouts
- 3 tbsps Olive Oil
- 2 cloves Garlic crushed
- 1 tbsp Curry Powder
- 2 tsps Turmeric
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- Salt and freshly ground Pepper
Instructions
- Start off by preheating your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. While the oven heats up, trim the stalks from the sprouts and remove any dirty leaves from the sprouts, before slicing in half.
- Mix the oil with the spices and garlic and toss the prepared sprouts in the oil mixture, turning well to ensure they're well coated.
- Lay out on a roasting tray and sprinkle on a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place into the hot oven. Roast in the oven for about 20-30 minutes according to preference. Some people prefer their sprouts with a bit of bite, others prefer them soft all the way through.
- Remove and serve as a side dish to the meal of your choice.
Purple brussels sprouts? Now that’s a new one for me too. I’d love to have seen a raw shot of them, perhaps next time? We are still in the midst of winter so your warming roasted brussels sprouts curry would be wonderful! I adore roasted brussels sprouts, roasting really brings out the sweetness. I had once read that if you scribe a little “X” in the bottom of each sprout on the stem side it will be less bitter! I’ve tried it and not really noticed a difference.
It’s actually comforting to know that there are some places in this world that you have to wait for the appropriate season to get that item. It’s absolutely ridiculous here because we can get everything all the time, sometimes it’s even affordable, but most of the time, they lack flavour and colour and everything good about locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Hi Eva, I was so surprised by your comment! Isn’t it strange how different traditions end up having different roots wherever you are? I was always told that putting an X in the bottom of your sprouts simply helps them cook better and more thoroughly (since they’re so compact). I must admit I never did a “side by side” comparison so I can’t attest as to whether it’s true or not… I never heard of it helping the bitterness though!
What a lovely variation on roasted sprouts, Charles: curry, cinnamon and garlic — I’ll be trying this.
Thanks Sharyn – I hope you enjoy them!
Loving the new “nifty” logo! Kudos to Shuhan!
And loving your take on these curry roasted sprouts! I have yet to find purple sprouts – though I did run into a purple and an orange cauliflower at the store this weekend.
Mm, I’ve seen purple caulis before… never orange though… sounds interesting!
For some reason I’m not using curry very much these days. This sounds like a great flavour addition to brussel sprouts … which I also don’t seem to eat very often.
Sometimes I have an “acute curry need”… I often have acute needs of things which I haven’t had in a long time… like that time when I read a post about falafels and immediately had to go and make my own, lol!
Charles, this is a delightful sounding recipe. And I do love your new logo. (Of course, now I can’t quite recall the old one, so I can’t compare them!) But I do like the “clean” simplicity of this one.
Hi Jean, it’s here in case you’re curious:
http://asset6.foodcdn.com/site_graphics/autumn_s.png
(you can also see the others by changing the autumn to winter, summer, easter, christmas, and spring).
I love your new logo. It’s very elegant. I know what you mean by things getting busier and busier! I would love to try some of those berries you mention – no sign of those anywhere in Oz. I love sprouts – I was one of those weird children that would always eat them! I’ve never seen the purple variety though and I’ve never roasted them. There’s always something new to experience xx
I never put so much thought into worldwide availability of berries before… It wasn’t until I started reading Helene’s blog, Masala Herb, that I was so shocked that they have SO MANY berries that I’ve never even heard of!
woo hoo for the new header! 😉 Was great workign with you!
Thanks Shu! Sent you a mail btw… let me know what you think 🙂
I’ve never seen purple sprouts but you certainly did get a bargain. Many vegetables that are purple before cooked turn green after. Were your sprouts still purple when cut open?
Well, they were definitely darker than “green”… yeah, I’d say they were a purplish hue. No difference in taste though.
Okay, so brussel sprouts used to hold a place close to beets for me, but this past year they’ve been moving closer to the tolerable area of my palate. I’m thinking that this recipe will be the one it takes to move them into the actually like them category. We love curry and I love roasting veggies. It’s what got me to eat cauliflower after all! I’m definitely making this and making it soon!
Now onto the berries…wow!!!! What are cloudberries? And do arctic raspberries taste the same as regular raspberries? I’m just fascinated by this. I LOVE berries. I had no idea there was such a selection out there. Yet another reason to come and visit you someday (as if I really need a reason other than you and the family!). 🙂
I’ve always loved them but they have to be hard and “al dente”… there’s nothing worse than mushy sprouts!
Cloudberries – they’re awesome… you know how blackberries look like they’re made up of little balls? A cloudberry is about the size of a blackberry but made up of just a few bigger balls, bright orange with a very distinctive flavour. The seed inside each little “ball” is bigger and harder than blackberries. It’s considered quite a delicacy here.
Arctic Raspberries – I haven’t had the luxury of trying one… I think they’re a little bit different… I hope I can find some this year and report back!
As for a visit – if you do and want to pick berries, then you should come in the autumn! We can go and pick blueberries, lingonberries and (hopefully) cloudberries together!
Purple brussels sprouts? Have never seen them but if I were to see them, I’m sure they would be about 10 times the costs. Great find and great recipe! I make a quite saute with Brussels sprout and curry and absolutely love it. I’m sure we would gobble these right up. Love you new logo!!!
Thanks MJ! Curry makes everything better I think, right? 😀
I basically don’t like brussels sprouts but if they roasted I could eat whole bunch. I don’t know why I didn’t come up with curry flavor version. I love curry and this recipe rocks!
I like your new logo! My husband designed my log a couple months ago. I think a bit flashy so asking him for new one.
Mm, I roasted some last year in bacon fat. My God they were so good! 😀
Now I need to find some time to re-theme my site… so much to do, so little time!
I was going to mention about the cool logo! Shuhan made a really nice one! I love brussel sprouts and curry flavor and roasted sounds all nice!
Thanks Nami! Sprouts are a bit like beets… seems people either love it or hate it!
Hello Charles, I am not going to lie to you. I am not a big brussel sprout fan but if you fill it up with delicious spices and I can no longer taste that they are actually are brussel sprouts like you did then I might be willing to give them a try. I know what you mean about time flying. I can’t seem to catch up and get everything done. Take care, BAM
Ah, I used to adore brussels sprouts when I was a kid! Weird, huh? They had to be “only just cooked” though. Nothing worse than school-meal-style squishy sprouts!
I had no idea Shuhan made your logo! It’s really cute and it goes so well with the new design.
This sounds like a fantastic way to prepare Brussels sprouts. Unfortunately I think their season here is over, but I will remember it for next year.
All these fruits sound very interesting. I think I had arctic raspberry jam from Ikea once, though of course it must have been a low quality product (it was horribly sweet and I am sure it wasn’t the fruit’s fault 😉 ). I’m looking forward to your experiments with the new fruits!
Hi Sissi, I’m very jealous if you had arctic raspberry jam! I never saw it in IKEA, although they do have cloudberry jam (at least in France), although the name is in Swedish (look for hjortronsylt). In any case, I agree – jam isn’t at all the best way to enjoy fruit, especially something as hard to get as arctic raspberries. By the time they’ve added all that sugar it will just be so different in taste!
Hi Charles! Thanks for the shout out mate, appreciate it. Sorry, it’s taken me so long to get here and comment, life’s been extra hectic lately. I don’t know where the time goes. Your curried sprouts look awesome! I’ve just recently started loving the curry powder stuff and find myself putting it in everything. It’s got a great taste which is completely different to Indian garam masala. Of course, it’s a Brit invention 🙂 and I’m loving it.
All those berries you mentioned sound fantastic! They have such wonderful names! I do love lingonberries and that’s about all we get here. I’d love to try cloud berries and arctic raspberries, oh my!
Hi Nazneen… alas, I was hoping my sprouts would look, at least a little, like yours. Even if they were cooked differently, I still hoped they would, but I ended up cooking them a bit too long. Oh well 🙁 They were still pretty good.
Can’t wait for autumn – berries galore here!
Roasted brussels sprouts are the best, these look crispy delicious!
Thanks Laura! 🙂