food comas

As I was trolling food blogs one lazy afternoon, I came across Food Perestroika, which piqued my interest. The entire blog is dedicated to Eastern Bloc cuisine, aka the Motherland. What was amazing was the scope of the countries and cuisines the blog covers, so I’ll definitely be using it as cooking inspirations for many recipes to come. That day, I decided to try out a few of the dishes from it as a test run. Jen and I have cooked Brussels sprouts before (Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Crispy Shallots, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms), but this recipe ingeniously incorporated fatty meat AND cheese, and since the main dish I was making was Salmon Burgers, I decided I could have a fattier side without much guilt. My attention to detail that day happened to have been piss poor, so instead of porchetta, I actually bought pancetta, but that didn’t ruin the dish. I also made two versions — a bigger pan and some individual cups, and I think I preferred the individual cups for the sheer cuteness factor.

Brussels Sprouts Gratin (courtesy of Food Perestroika)

Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1lb Brussels sprouts, cleaned and quartered
• salt and pepper
• 1-2 tbsp EVOO
• 3oz porchetta (I “messed up” and got pancetta)
• 2oz Gruyère, finely grated (I used some Parmesan on my second cooking attempt, which was also delicious)

Directions:

In a hot pan, sauté the Brussels sprouts in olive oil until brown and crispy on all sides. Then lower the heat to medium, add salt and pepper , cover with a lid and cook until soft when poked with a fork, stirring occasionally. Add porchetta/pancetta and turn up the heat, cooking until it’s slightly crispy.

Take off the heat, and in an oven-safe dish, sprinkle with the cheese and broil until the cheese melts (a couple minutes).

Serve and enjoy!