Recipe Courtesy of Chef Isaac Toups, Toups’ Meatery, New Orleans
(Photo courtesy of Denny Culbert)

The sweet and sour sauce goes well not only with Brussels sprouts but other vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, butternut squash, green beans—anything you can roast in a pan. It’s a sauce that fires on every cylinder in your mouth: It’s sweet and sour, but also spicy, salty, gingery, and savory. I’ve even played with it as a seasoning for beef tartare.

(Serves 4)

Ingredients
1 pound Brussels sprouts (if small, leave whole; if large, halve or quarter them into 1-inch chunks)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Sweet & Sour Sauce (recipe below)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Toss the Brussels sprouts, oil, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl to season. Arrange in a baking sheet large enough for the sprouts to fit in a single layer. Roast for 20 minutes, until nicely charred. Let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer sprouts to a mixing bowl, drizzle with 2 tablespoons sauce and toss until Brussels sprouts are well coated.

Sweet & Sour Sauce
Makes 1 cup
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup aged sherry vinegar
½ cup cane syrup (or dark molasses)
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
10 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup (2 ounces) minced fresh ginger

Directions

  • Heat all the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Reduce the heat to low and maintain a simmer for 55 minutes, swirling the pan every 5 minutes, until the liquid reduces to about 1 cup.
  • As it reduces, there will be sugar on the rim that will start to char, so swirling will take that sugar back into the liquid. This will burn if you look at it wrong because of all the sugar, so the swirling is important.
  • The shelf life of this sauce is longer than human civilization. It’s got so much salt and vinegar in it, you could drop a raw fish in and it would be fine. It’s basically a preservative at this point. What I’m saying: You can make giant batches and it will keep for a long time. So do it.

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