Brussels sprouts with bacon, mint, pistachio, fish sauce and pickled-pepper caramel
Crunchy-soft, warm-chilled, sweet-spicy, this is a salad that has it all. Matty Matheson’s throwback to the Brussels sprouts dishes of the 2010s — ubiquitous in just about every gastropub of that era — gets an upgrade with a chile-packed fish sauce caramel and a snowy showering of fresh mint, lime and shaved Brussels sprouts in his cookbook “Soups, Salads, Sandwiches.”
Adapted here with greater detail for the caramel-making process, this is a recipe that requires a bit of patience but delivers with big flavor and perfect balance. It’s also a recipe that might leave you with a small reserve of chile fish-sauce caramel dressing; save it in the fridge for other salads, or use it as a meat or seafood marinade.
“Twelve years ago, you couldn’t walk into a restaurant and not get fried Brussels sprouts with a spicy sauce or something,” Matheson writes. “It was like wildfire. This is the 2020s redux version of something we all used to love that got beaten down so hard from triple-trickle-down restaurant folks. But these fried Brussels deserve to live again because this is something special. The deep caramelization from frying combined with that super-bouncy crunch of the raw is world class. This salad is so f—ing good. Wow. Let’s honor the 2010s.”
Matty Matheson's Brussels sprouts with bacon, mint, pistachio, fish sauce and pickled-pepper caramel
Heat your oven to 450 degrees.
For the dressing: Take the stems off the chiles and remove the seeds. In a blender, purée the red bell pepper, jalapeño, Scotch bonnet, Thai chiles, serranos, fish sauce and vinegar until well combined.
Start making a caramel. In a small pot over medium heat, combine the sugar and water and reduce until thickened and dark amber in color, about 15 to 20 minutes. “This will take time, and you need to keep stirring it pretty consistently,” Matheson says. Once the caramel has thickened, add the blended peppers and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
For the Brussels sprouts: On a baking sheet, toss the halved Brussels sprouts and bacon in olive oil, and season with salt and black pepper. Roast until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Let them cool for 10 minutes. Then cut the bacon into small pieces, about ¼-inch morsels.
In a large bowl, combine the roasted Brussels sprouts and bacon with the pistachios. Gradually incorporate the caramel sauce in batches, then toss everything together.
Plate the warm Brussels sprouts mixture onto a serving platter. Cover with the shaved Brussels sprouts, mint and lime zest and juice. “Toss and serve to your best friends only,” Matheson says. “No borderline people, only ride-or-dies.”
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