Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I've been trying for a month now to get this post up! It's been rather difficult as most of my daytime activities since July 2nd have been seen through a sleep-deprived haze.

"Why?" I hear you ask.

It is because the French decided to have a big ole bike race in the middle of the night. You'd think they could have the decency to have it at normal hours, but no, it's on live in the middle of the night here down unda.

Now that it has been 5 days since the end and I've caught up on a month's worth of sleep, I can now devote time to this here food bloggie thingy.

BTW, Cadel Evans won the Tour de France. Just in case you didn't know.

Back to brussel sprouts.

Brussel sprouts are in season down here now so I've been eating lots of them. I used to just steam them, butter em up, and then eat them. Someone suggested that I bake em with olive oil and garlic. Hey, that works for me! Thanks Arvay!

They were very good, I quite like them that way. I then tried baking them with some other veggies at the same time and found that onions make a nice accompaniment.

I also used them in a couple of stir fries; again success!

But why not combine the two, thought I? Guess what? It WORKED!

ROASTED BRUSSEL SPROUTS

What you need for one serving as a side dish:

4 raw brussel sprouts, halved
1 thick slab of raw onion
2 cloves garlic (I used some that I stored in olive oil), thick sliced
olive oil
sea salt
splash of white wine
freshly grated parmesan
A fry pan that is oven safe (I recommend cast iron)

What you do:

Drizzle a bit of olive oil in your pan, heat it up, then add the brussel sprouts, cut side down. It should look something like this:

No, these aren't giant brussel sprouts, it's just a small cast iron pan!



When the flat side has browned, turn 'em over and add the onion and garlic. Like this, see?




Go ahead and give it a sprinkle of sea salt now. Or later, no worries either way.

Once the onions are just starting to cook



add a splash of white wine --around half a glass-- to deglaze the fry pan. Simmer till the wine cooks down.

Once the wine cooks down put the pan in a medium oven and cook till the garlic is just soft. This should only take 12 to 15 mins. When you take the pan out of the oven it should look something similar to this:




After plating, grate some high quality Parmesan over the top and enjoy!

Here it is as a side dish to Twice-Baked Potatoes:




And here is the obligatory closeup:




Don't forget that brussel sprouts are very healthy! In fact this entire side dish is just oozing with healthy goodness!