Monthly Archives: June 2020

Candied Bacon and Brussels Sprouts

OH MY GOD I HAVE NO WORDS FOR HOW DELICIOUS THIS IS.

For context, I’ve never cooked brussels sprouts before in a method that wasn’t boiled. At least successfully. My attempt to oven roast them resulted in burned spouts. Yeah, I screw up now and again. But since I’d enjoyed spouts at my in-laws’, I was keen to try cook ’em.

I wanted bacon this morning, so I got up while the kiddlywinks were still asleep and decided to try Gordon Ramsay’s method of frying up bacon in a way he says he was introduced to in America: Fried, with sugar. So I dropped my bacon in my pan, without the olive oil (I figured the bacon would render out very nicely) added a small pat of butter and brown sugar (I tend to use brown in my household) and cooked it over lowest heat on my biggest burner, turning the bacon frequently. As it cooked, I remembered watching somewhere that brussels sprouts are best if caramelized. I figured, I’d try doing that with whatever was left over after I was done frying breakfast for myself and the oldest boyo. But first, I finished coating my bacon with that delicious bacony caramel by turning it over and over until it was silky and oh so tempting. It looked like jeweled ham.

So I chopped up a handful of brussels sprouts that I’d had in my fridge for the last week and fried it in that pan for four or five minutes and… let me tell you, I ended up eating up the spouts first over that beautiful bacon, which is that perfect addictive salty-sweet goodness that makes people love American Kettle Corn. Uhmf. They were gone before I remembered I was supposed to eat them with the bacon!

Oh. That black mass on my rice (because rice for the Asian!) is the caramel goodness scraped from the bottom of my pan after I was done. It was savory candy. DELICIOUS AND CRUMBLY. I even scraped it off the tongs.

Not the healthiest breakfast, but there ya go. As an occasional treat of a brekkie, it should be fine to indulge in once in a while.