Thanksgiving has turn out to be a favourite vacation in my prolonged household, however this wasn’t at all times the case. Rising up with immigrant mother and father, my sisters and cousins longed for gluttonous feasts full of roasted turkey, tacky casseroles, different starch-filled sides, and pie. Nevertheless, the Thai elders weren’t in the slightest degree taken with even determining easy methods to activate the oven. 

We lastly took issues into our personal arms as younger adults, dragging our mother and father and grandparents kicking and screaming alongside the way in which. They finally liked that it was one other excuse to assemble, chatter for hours, and play playing cards. However they bemoaned the meals. God forbid there isn’t Asian meals at each meal they eat!

In an try to appease everybody, I reimagined some traditional Thanksgiving dishes with flavorings that may entice the Thai aunties and uncles whereas not utterly offending the American Thanksgiving traditionalists amongst us. One crowd favourite is that this dish of roasted Brussels sprouts with candy chili sauce. It begins like nearly another recipe for roasted Brussels sprouts however is completed off with a candy, funky, ever so barely spicy sauce.

Why I Love Candy Chili Sauce

Candy chili sauce, identified familiarly in Thai as nam jim gai—or rooster dipping sauce—is an undisputed unifier. The sticky, more-sweet-than-spicy sauce is served alongside Thai grilled rooster and sticky rice (therefore the identify) however it’s additionally nice with fried spring rolls, crispy wontons, fried rooster…the checklist goes on and certainly consists of roasted turkey. 

You may make your individual candy chili sauce however most individuals I do know simply inventory their fridges with large bottles of Mae Ploy model sauce from their native Asian market. You’ll discover loads of artistic makes use of for it from marinades to doctoring up different sauces, together with ketchup and aioli. 

Just like Sriracha’s skyrocketing fame in America, candy Thai candy chili sauce has made the leap to modern restaurant menus, typically paired with roasted greens, like I do right here. However most of the time, these restaurant dishes are too candy for my style, so to stability the bottled condiment’s sweetness right here I’ve combined it with fish sauce, sriracha, and just a little butter to emulsify it into one thing that appears a bit like buffalo sizzling sauce that’ll coat the sprouts. It’s candy, with a kick of warmth and a savory spine, and pairs completely with the earthy sprouts.

Ideas for Cooking the Brussels Sprouts

Like many nice Brussels sprouts recipes, this dish begins with searing them in a scorching sizzling oven earlier than they’ll develop the sulfurous compounds that emerge when sprouts are cooked too lengthy. The result’s charred and caramelized sprouts with crispy, brown exterior leaves. This may be completed simply as simply in a wok or giant skillet in smaller parts, however you’d be searing batches all day to yield sufficient to feed a crowd, which is why I select to stay with the oven for this recipe.

Along with beginning the Brussels sprouts in a sizzling oven, I make use of a number of different methods for making them additional crispy and caramelized, together with chopping the sprouts in half to hurry up cooking, tossing them with rendered pancetta fats (you will put aside the crispy bits so as to add to the sprouts later), and inserting them minimize aspect down on a preheated sheet pan. This floor space contact and rapid sizzle will ship a pleasant brown shade throughout and a beautiful roasted, nutty taste. (For a vegetarian possibility, you possibly can merely toss the sprouts in impartial cooking oil as a substitute of fats.)

The ultimate flourish is a squeeze of lime juice to offer the sprouts that balanced sweet-salty-sour taste Thai meals is thought for. The recipe comes collectively in effectively underneath an hour, and most of that point it is simply within the oven so you are able to do different issues whereas the Brussels cook dinner. The top result’s a dish that is excellent for Thanksgiving or actually any evening of the week—no want to attend for a vacation!

November 2024