Brussel sprouts: haters gonna hate.

Remember that lush, verdant green I had growing out back but just a few posts ago? Yeah. not so much anymore. My once resplendent urban garden has since melted into a series of cellulose-and-jelly filled planter boxes. The one thing which has indeed managed to evade winter gooification: my brussel sprouts. Despite their insprational perseverance, I haven't been great about their upkeep since things got cold and wet outside. Consequently, there aren't too many sprouts big enough to eat - plus my cat has spent the better portion of winter shitting all over them.

My childhood encounters with brussel sprouts recall an epic battle between my gag reflex and unwavering parental insistence at the holiday table. I've actually grown to quite like them since then. This recipe is ridiculously easy and renders those little brassicaceaeous brains soft, salty, and just a little bit bitter - as good brains ought to be, I suppose.

"BRAIIIINS!" - plants vs zombies continues to dominate my daily pop culture references.

Eat-by-themselves brussel sprouts

-20 or so brussel sprouts (about 1 lb)
-1 tbsp olive oil
-2-3 tbsp butter (or duck fat or bacon fat - YURM!)
-1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
-1 1/2 cups chicken stock
-salt+pepper to taste

First things first, crank up your burner to a high heat, and wash+cut your sprouts in half (lengthwise so they stay together). Put a large pan on the heat and drop in the oil and fat of your choice. Once the butter (or whatever else you're using) has melted into the oil, place the sprouts in, cut side down. Leave them alone for about 5 minutes, or until they get nice and charred. Give the pan a couple of stirs to turn most of them over and continue browning for another 3-5 minutes.

Pour in the chicken stock and cover the whole thing for another 8-10 minutes. After this time, uncover and reduce away any residual liquid (I've always found that it's pretty much gone by this point anyways).

Once you've done away with the stock, turn off your stove, sprinkle in your cheese, and grind in some black pepper to your taste (thanks to the cheese and stock I've never needed salt on these and I am a total sodium junkie). Stir to coat and melt the cheese a little, then plate with a little more cheese sprinkled on top. ...Or a lot more, whatever. I suppose this would be a nice side dish, but I am completely serious when I say that I will readily dive into a batch of this all by its lonesome. And yeah, I know, "put butter and cheese on a shoe and it'll taste good", right? It may not be original, but fuck that because it's delicious.