Sprouting from the ground

What is the worst Christmas joke you have ever heard?  How about - What is the most common wine at Christmas?  The answer is - Do I have to eat all my Brussels Sprouts?  Well despite some bad jokes Brussels sprouts are a popular winter vegetable that are often served up with Roast Turkey and all the Christmas trimmings.

Brussels sprouts are a wholesome and healthy vegetable, providing they are cooked properly.  This means cooking them for a short time so that the flavour and healthy elements are not cooked or boiled away.  When you prepare and cook sprouts follow these top tips:

• Buy smaller sprouts
• Prepare sprouts by removing the leaves and then washing them
• Peel off the dead outer leaves in advance and store them in the fridge so they do not discolour
• Steam cook them as this helps keep their flavour.  Add some chopped onions and cooked bacon and toss them in virgin olive oil.

The correct spelling is Brussels sprouts but they are often incorrectly spelt at Brussel sprouts.  Brussels is in Belgium where they were very popular in the late 16^th century.  It was not until the mid 19^th century that they became popular in Britain.  Nowadays farmers in Britain produce sprouts worth over £30 million and many of these are sent abroad to Europe and countries in the Commonwealth.

Sprouts are low in fat and sodium and only have ten calories each.  They have lots of fibre like other vegetables and are great as part of your five a day diet.  They have lots of vitamin C and just six sprouts will provide an adult with their vitamin C requirements for the day.  A sprout has three times more vitamin C, weight for weight, than an orange.  They are also a good supply of Vitamin D, folic acid that is important for women when they are pregnant and they contain substances that may help prevent cancer.

Sprouts are part of the cabbage or Brassica family.  Other vegetables in the same family are broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.  They are part of the mustard family and have a four part flower in the shape of a cross and grow on a tall stemmed plant which reaches about one metre in height. 

They look like small egg shaped cabbages about 3 to 6 cms across.  The leaves are small, green and have a whitish vein running through them.  The leaves overlap and are packed tightly together with the leaves getting smaller as you get closer to the stalk.  The colour can vary from dark green to bluish green to a purplish red.  As the plant grows taller more sprouts are formed and if you remove the lower leaves more sprouts will grow.  They are at their best in the autumn and early winter.

The seeds are grown in small pots in a nursery garden and then replanted into fields when they are small plants.  They are then dug up and re-planted in fields when they are 5 to 6 weeks old.  They should be planted in a row 16 to 18 inches apart with each row of seeds about 36 inches apart.

Brussels sprouts are well known for their smell and this is caused by the sulphur in the plant.  So the shorter time you cook them the less smell their will be and the tastier they are to eat.  They should have a delicious nutty flavour, so give them a try this Christmas.

Date

3/12/2007