What to Cook this Week - Brussels Sprouts

While I’m all about starting the new year off with healthy food, especially after the excesses of the holiday season, I’m not above reaching for comfort food when I need it. And, to be completely honest, I could use some this week.

Casseroles are the very definition of comfort food, aren’t they? Warm and delicious, they soothe both the soul and our stomach.

On this week’s menu is the following “casserole”, if you will. In French, it would be called a gratin, which basically means “to grate”, such as in grated cheese. But this is not what the word originally referred to. Instead it meant something more like “scrapings”. This referred to the browned crust that would develop either on top or on the bottom of the dish as it baked, which would at some point during the cooking process be stirred back into the dish.

Over time though, we’ve come to call a gratin a dish whereby a crust forms on the top of something we bake, whether this crust forms by itself, through the addition of breadcrumbs or cheese on top, or is accelerated by passing the dish under a broiler. And we don’t stir it back into the dish anymore, because, why would we?  It’s so much better left on top. It makes for a beautiful presentation, when finished cooking.

A “gratin” can also simply refer to the type of cookware in which the dish is cooked. Typically gratin baking dishes are oval (see photo, right), but they can also be round. The dish is typically of a clay-based ceramic, but can also be metal or oven-proof glass. Regardless of what sort of dish it’s in  I suggest you give this recipe a try.

Brussels Sprouts Gratin

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp butter
2/3 cup heavy cream*
2/3 cup milk*
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese (saving 1 Tbsp for the end)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced**
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 300F.

Butter a shallow ovenproof dish.  Blend together the cream, milk, 2 Tbsp. of the cheese and seasoning.

Place a layer of Brussels sprouts in the dish and sprinkle with some of the chopped garlic. Pour over about 1/4 of the cream mixture. Continue adding another layer of sprouts, garlic and cream mix, building layers like a lasagne, ending with cream and milk and then another tablespoon of Parmesan cheese.

Cover loosely with waxed paper and bake 1-1/4 hours. Halfway through the cooking time, remove the paper and press the Brussels sprouts under the liquid in the dish. Return to the oven to brown.

* So here I would simply just use 1-1/3 cups of half and half, preferably organic.
** Sometimes you can find them already sliced, or “shaved”, ready to go, at your market.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!