Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Sausage Crumbles

If you are looking for a wonderful, flavorful side dish for the holidays, try my Brussels sprouts and potatoes with sausage crumbles, that is, a lovely mix of aromatics fried with sausage until crispy and golden.

Welcome to Holiday Side Week, brainchild of Heather from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks, where side dishes are the star of your celebration table! Make sure you scroll down past my recipe to check out all the other wonderful side dishes we are sharing. I’ve always thought that side dishes don’t get enough credit so I am delighted to join the group this year. 

This side dish is one I’ve adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. I’ve loved him since 2002 and he’s still one of my favorite chefs. Jamie’s done a couple of new series just for the pandemic that haven’t made it across the pond yet so I watch them online and it’s such a joy to see his smiling, encouraging face and easy manner in the kitchen. 

Jamie’s at home, just like the rest of us, cooking for family and making wild substitutions, just like the rest of us when we can’t find our normal ingredients in stock. 

About the humble sprout, he says they tend to work best when totally over-cooked or only just cooked and this recipe gives you the best of both with half of the sprouts cooked till golden and almost crispy and the other half lightly steamed and bright green. 

Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Sausage Crumbles

Jamie uses a typical British sausage called Cumberland in his dish so I chose a fresh pork sausage in natural casing that has a very similar flavor profile. Use whatever fresh tasty sausage you have available or you can even substitute bacon in a pinch. 

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 medium onion

1-2 rosemary sprigs

1 large clove garlic

1 lb or 450g Brussels sprouts

2 large Russet potatoes (approx. weight 1 lb 10 oz or 750g)

1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seeds

2 quality fresh sausages

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

Optional: chopped red chili pepper for heat and garnish

Method

Peel and chop the onion finely. Peel and sliver the garlic. Pull the leaves off of the rosemary sprigs and chop them finely.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. In a bowl, cover the potatoes with cool water so they don’t turn brown. Set the bowl aside. 

Cut and discard the hard stem ends off of your Brussels sprouts. Finely slice half of the sprouts and cut the other half in halves.  

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large lidded pan, then add the onion, fennel seeds and rosemary and cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until the onion is soft.

Squeeze the sausage meat out of the casing and add it to the onion pan. Break it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until it is just small bits. 

 Keep frying until the sausage is golden and starting to get crisp. Add in the garlic and fry for just a few minutes more until everything is a luscious crunchy brown. The lighting on my stove is terrible. Apologies. 

Remove the  sausage and seasonings from the pan and set aside. 

Drizzle a little more olive oil into the pan. Drain the cubed potatoes and dry them on a clean kitchen towel. We want them to brown and wet taters will just steam. 

Put the potatoes single file in the pan over a medium high heat and don’t stir until they are golden on the bottom. You can give the pan a shake occasionally. Toss the potatoes and leave them to brown on a second side, turning them with tongs, if need be.

Keep tossing and turning until the potato cubes are golden on all sides. 

Scoot the potatoes to the sides and add the sliced sprouts to the middle with another drizzle of olive oil. 

Put the lid on and cook for about 5 minutes, without stirring. 

Remove the lid and cook for a further 5 minutes, raising the heat a little. You want the sprouts to toast and brown. You can stir them into the potatoes at this point. 

Add a splash of the white balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Now add in the halved Brussels sprouts with a small splash of water. 

Pop the lid on and cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the halved sprouts are just tender. 

Add the sausage crumbles back in.

 Add a final drizzle of white balsamic. Taste for salt and pepper, adding more if necessary. 

Sprinkle with some chopped red chili pepper and serve. 

Enjoy!

Check out all the great holiday side dishes my friends are sharing! There is no excuse this holiday season for boring sides. 

• Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles by House of Nash Eats
• Balsamic Glazed Baby Onions by Savory Experiments
• Best Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe by The Fresh Cooky
• Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Stuffing by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Sausage Crumbles by Food Lust People Love
• Cauliflower Gratin by Lemon Blossoms
• Cheese Herb Potato Gratin by Shockingly Delicious
• Cheesy Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole by Blogghetti
• Cranberry Fluff by An Affair from the Heart
• Easy Chorizo Cornbread Dressing by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Cranberries & Pecans by Sweet Beginnings
• Holiday Side Salad by Our Good Life
• Honey Roasted Carrots by Devour Dinner
• No Knead Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Roasted Buttercup Squash by Palatable Pastime
• Roasted fingerling potatoes with Parmesan by The Foodie Affair
• Sauteed Spinach with Bacon by Kate's Recipe Box
• Slow Cooker Cheesy Vegetables by Cheese Curd in Paradise
• Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans by West Via Midwest
• Sweet Potato Salad by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Traditional Cranberry Sauce by Family Around the Table
• Twiced Baked Sweet Potatoes by Cindy's Recipes and Writings

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Cinnamon Brown Butter Sourdough Muffins #MuffinMonday

These cinnamon brown butter sourdough muffins are fluffy and tender, lightly sweetened and flavorful, perfect for breakfast or snack time. 

I’m trying to learn how to downsize. Even with giving baked goods away, we still seem to have more than we can eat since none of my immediate family is a big sweet eater. To that end, I now own a six-cup muffin pan. 

Or I should say, I again own a six-cup muffin pan. The two I had in Dubai went in the shipment to the Channel Islands and I was planning to pick one of them up this summer and bring it back to Houston. 

As we all know, that trip was canceled, along with everyone else’s summer holidays. Best laid plans, and all that. 

This recipe makes six large muffins. Since my new muffin pan is for normal sized muffins, I used oversized muffin pan liners, which work great for this purpose. If you don’t happen to have deep liners, you can easily make some out of baking parchment.

Cinnamon Brown Butter Sourdough Muffins

The brown butter lends such a lovely background flavor to these muffins but if you can’t be bothered (do bother, it takes mere minutes!) use about 1 tablespoon less than the full half cup of butter and just melt it and leave it to cool before proceeding with the recipe. The sourdough starter can be discard or fed. 

Ingredients

For the muffins:

1/2 cup or 120g butter

1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour

1/2 cup or 100g light brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or 130g sourdough starter - stir down the bubbles before measuring

1/4 cup or 60ml milk

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the topping:

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

Heat the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. It will melt and then white foam will form on top. Continue cooking until milk solids start turning brown and the butter is a lovely caramel color. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. In lieu of process photos, I offer you this link to see The Cooking Actress make brown butter. Kayle is my brown butter guru and her recipes are legend. 

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a six-cup muffin pan with tall muffin liners. In a small bowl, mix together the topping of cinnamon and sugar. Set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla, brown butter, and sourdough starter until well combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold until just combined. This will be a fluffy dough rather than a batter. 

Divide the dough evenly between the six muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with the cinnamon sugar. 

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the muffins are nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday in October, which means it’s Muffin Monday again. Check out all the tasty muffins my friends are sharing!

• Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins from Making Miracles
• Cinnamon Brown Butter Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Date, Prune, and Dried Cherry Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pumpkin Sourdough Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Savory Zucchini Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

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Slow Cooker Shiitake Congee

Slow cooker shiitake congee is a warming bowl of comfort, made with lots of savory, flavorful mushrooms and your favorite rice. Top it with your favorite add ons.

One of my favorite breakfast buffet dishes when we lived in southeast Asia was the big pot of congee or rice porridge with lots of toppings from crunchy little dried fish and sliced chili peppers to crispy shallots and sambal. Such a bowl of comfort! 

It’s super easy to make in a slow cooker as well. Simply slice up your mushrooms, throw everything in together and walk away. You can eat it plain or dress it up with toppings. 

Slow Cooker Shiitake Congee

I’m publishing this recipe – looooong overdue – with permission from my lovely friend, author Kathy Hester. It’s from her wonderful revised and updated cookbook, The Vegan Slow Cooker. <affiliate link Like all of Kathy’s great cookbooks, the instructions are clear and helpful adaptations are included. Everything I’ve made from ALL of Kathy’s cookbooks has been excellent! Highly recommend. This recipe makes 4-6 servings.

Ingredients

For the congee:

8 cups or 1880ml water or broth (IMHO: Broth adds more flavor.)

4 cups or 280g thinly sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms

4 cups or 280g thinly sliced button, baby bella, shiitake mushrooms or combination

1 cup or 185g rice (I used long grain. Kathy’s recipe says brown rice. Use your favorite rice.)

3 tablespoons or 24g grated ginger

Optional suggestions for serving:

Soy sauce

Scallions

Cilantro

Chopped chili peppers

Extra grated ginger

Leftover cooked veggies

Tofu cubes

Method

If you are pressed for time in the morning, you can prepare the mushrooms and ginger the night before and keep them in the refrigerator overnight. 

Otherwise, cut the hard stem ends off of the mushrooms then use a sharp knife to cut them into thin slices. If desired, set a few slices aside for topping. 

Then grate your ginger. 

Add them both to your slow cooker, along with the rice and the liquid of your choice, either broth or water. Normally I would use chicken broth but in deference to Kathy’s vegan recipe, I used a rich vegetarian stock. 

Cook on low for 7 to 9 hours. When time is up, give the pot a good stir. 

Kathy suggests (be still my heart that LOVES congee in a buffet!) to place your chosen toppings on the table and let everyone add what they like best. 

In our house, sliced chili peppers are an absolute necessity but we also enjoyed the suggested tofu cubes and scallions aka green onion tops. 

You do you but do make this comfort dish. You won’t regret it. And check out Kathy’s blog Healthy Slow Cooking (and her other books.) You won't regret that either. We are not a vegan family but we always love her creative and delicious recipes. 

Enjoy!

It's Multicooker Monday! Check out all the other Multicooker recipes my friends are sharing this month! Many thanks to Sue of Palatable Pastime, our group leader. 

• Air Fryer Pork and Vegetable Egg Rolls from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Air Fryer Roasted Broccoli from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Instant Pot Swedish Meatballs from Making Miracles
• Kerala Beef Olarthiyathu- Pressure Cooker from Sneha’s Recipe
• Slow Cooker Shiitake Congee from Food Lust People Love
• Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce from Palatable Pastime
• Southern Pimento Cheese Crockpot Potato Soup from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Toaster Oven Turkey Schmaltz Cornbread from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group.

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