Brussel sprouts with hazelnuts, lemon & butter #141

Brussel sprouts are a great vegetable as long as you won´t do what your grandmother did and boil the crap out of them for an hour or so. I got my hands on some purple brussel sprouts for this recipe, they have the same color as the normal ones but look so much better, especially if they are the main attraction for a dish. If you can´t find them then just use the normal green ones.

Brussel sprouts with hazelnuts, lemon & butter

brussel sprouts

lemon

butter

hazelnuts

salt, pepper

olive oil

Remove the skin from the hazelnuts if you haven´t bought peeled ones, all you need to do is boil them for a few seconds and then you can easily remove the skin which will crumble and go soft from the boiling. Then roast them with a little bit of salt and olive oil until golden.

Cut away leafs from the brussel sprouts until you have about a handful for each serving. Rinse in cold water. Cut lemons in half and fry in butter on medium temperature until golden, this will not only look good but also flavor the butter and give the lemon a little bit of sweeter taste. Serve one half lemon for each portion. Add a little bit of extra butter and turn up the heat after you removed the lemons. Add the brussel sprouts to the butter and fry for a few seconds. You want them to be warm but almost completely raw. This gives them a great texture and remove the raw cabbage taste.

Serve immediately with the lemon and hazelnuts, add the butter that is left in the pan on top of the brussel leafs. Good luck.

Cauliflower cream with hazelnuts & truffle vinaigrette #103

This is a bit more of an elegant tapas, what I think makes it so good is the variety in textures and temperature when you are using both cooked, roasted and raw cauliflower. The cream can also be used as a great side for meats as well.

Cauliflower cream with hazelnuts & truffle vinaigrette

cauliflower
cream
peeled hazelnuts
truffle oil or truffles in oil
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper

Cauliflower cream
Break the cauliflower in smaller pieces and let simmer in water with some salt until cooked through. Strain the water and add a little bit of cream and blend until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Raw and roasted cauliflower
Using a knife carefully cut away small pieces of cauliflower, soak them in cold water to keep them crunchy until serving. Then cut one bigger piece and roast it in a pan with olive oil until golden and almost cooked through.

Truffle vinaigrette and hazelnuts
Combine olive oil, truffle oil and some vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Roast the hazelnuts with a few drops of olive oil.

Serving
Arrange all ingredients on a plate, serve the cream and roasted cauliflower warm and the hazelnuts and vinaigrette at room temperature and the raw cauliflower cold.