Brussel Sprouts w/ Smokey Bacon Sous Vide

Ok enough of the focus has been on the sous vide-ing of meat lately. Let's try our hand at one of my favorite veggies, brussel sprouts. Most people are either in the love or hate camp when it comes to brussel sprouts. My belief is you have either had them cooked properly or not. I can't think of another veggie I love more than a brussel sprout, or as they are called in the country side of Belgium, big city sprouts.

We start by cutting off the nub end and splitting them in half. Then we take some of our home smoked bacon, and crisp it up in a fry pan. Come on now this isn't a vegan blog, have to add some bacon.

While the bacon is crisping up give the sprouts some seasoning love of salt and pepper. Once the bacon is crisp, remove from heat and let cool slightly then add the bacon and its rendered fat to the sprouts with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. (Added the olive oil as there wasn't a lot of rendered fat from the bacon)

Now its time suck. Vacuum seal the mixture and place in your water bath. Sous vide is a great way to cook as all the vitamins, minerals and flavor are sealed in the food, there is no leaching of beneficial nutrients or taste. I set the temp at 185 F and let cook for about 2 hours.

While the sprouts bathe, I reduced a couple of tablespoons each of balsamic and sherry vinegar, over high heat into a nice thick syrup to drizzle over the finished veg.

Here is the finished product, they suffered a little color loss, but the flavor was great and they were not mushy at all. Since they were cooked in a sealed environment they were infused with the smokey bacon flavor, that made me wonder if there is a way to graft bacon into plants while they're still growing. Next time I do 'em I would lower the temp to 170 and pull them after an hour, just to maintain a little more color.