We've been eyeing off all the Brussels sprouts recipes in Hetty McKinnon's Tenderheart and counting down until they were in season to try some out. We jumped the gun a little with this - they don't really peak until May or June - but we were too impatient to wait. The newish Korean grocery at Barkly Square made ingredient shopping for this one super easy, and the results were excellent - smoky and spicy and generally delicious, with a great combo of textures. I really love cooking with and eating rice cakes, so I'm pretty sure this will get another go around before winter ends.
Caramelised brussels sprouts with kimchi & rice cakes
(from Hetty McKinnon's Tenderheart)
500g sliced rice cakes
400g Brussels sprouts, trimmed
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
3/4 cup vegan kimchi, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon tamari
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon toasted white sesame seeds
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and cook the rice cakes - check your packet, but ours only took a couple of minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water - try to keep them from sticking to each other too much.
Halve the Brussels sprouts (or quarter them in if they're big) and heat a frying pan over high heat. Drizzle with olive oil and add the sprouts and a generous shake of salt to the pan. Leave them to cook for a couple of minutes without stirring, so they char on the bottom and then turn them and do the same again for another couple of minutes. Repeat until they're tender and nicely charred all over. Transfer them to a bowl and set aside (you may need to do a couple of batches, depending on the size of your frying pan).
Add some more oil to the pan and stir together the garlic, ginger and kimchi. Press the kimchi into the pan and leave to cook for 2-3 minutes until it's also nice and charred.
Run some more water over the rice cakes and separate them as best you can and then add them into your pan with the kimchi, along with the sprouts. Toss everything together and add in the tamari and sesame oil, plus generous shakes of salt and pepper.
Kill the heat and serve, topped with a generous sprinkle of the sesame seeds.
This looks fantastic. We are quite into rice cakes too and Sylvia has been pining for an amazing meal she had in Rome with them so we tried some rice cakes with mushroom gravy but it was not at all in the ballpark of amazingness. Your rice cakes look much lighter and we love brussels sprouts but have had too many experiences of kimchi going off so that is the challenge. I can't wait to try this.
ReplyDeleteI have a remembered rice cake dish from Easy Tiger that I wish I could recreate! It was smoky and included mushrooms too.
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