LA Weekly

Dear Mr. Gold:

I heard you on Good Food talking with Evan Kleinman, and you briefly mentioned a Brussels-sprout recipe! I think you said you shred them and cook them with some crème fraîche. I love Brussels sprouts, and love hearing new ways to use them. Do you have a recipe?


Dear Jim:

I like to shred Brussels sprouts (usually with a mandoline, although a knife works fine), melt them down in butter and finish with a little cream or crème fraîche, just enough to bind them. If I’m feeling expansive, I’ll chop up a few slices of good bacon and throw that in. If I’m feeling generous, a few roasted, peeled chestnuts may be involved. Cooked as a green rather than as a boiled object, Brussels sprouts have a delicious, nutty taste that goes particularly well with roasted birds. But the recipe I wish I had is for the ones they make at a restaurant called the Harrison in Tribeca. It involves stripping off half the leaves, I believe, a little maple syrup and a hot griddle, but I've never figured out quite how they do it. At the Harrison, the Brussels sprouts usually disappear before the French fries, and the fries are among the best in Manhattan. Unfortunately, Brussels sprouts aren’t much of a restaurant thing in Los Angeles. And I remember reading somewhere that they have practically disappeared off tables in Great Britain, where they have been a winter staple for hundreds of years.


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