Brussel Sprouts in Sour Cream

Since I had a rather a lot of brussel sprouts I had to find something different to do with the rest of them.

¡Really! This one's quite nice too. It takes the dreaded sprouts and casseroles them with bacon and quark / kwark; topped with a little browned bread crumbs. Just love quark too; sort of a smooth cottage cheese type of thing.

Okay, and as a concession to those consider sprouts bitter, mushy, nose-wrinkling wads of cruciferous terror (to quote Orangette) one might consider substituting green beans.

Ingredients:

• 500 g brussel sprouts [1#]
• 50 g chopped bacon [2 oz]
  
• 200 g quark [7 oz]
  
• 2 T bread crumbs
• Salt & pepper
  
• Olive oil
  

Procedure:

1. Wash; trim discolored leaves from sprouts; hack off some of stubby bottom
   
2. Blanch in boiling water 2 minutes (eliminates any bitterness)
3. While that's happening, fry up the chopped bacon a little bit to soften the bits (and get rid of some of the fat)
   
4. Drain sprouts and rinse with cold water (to stop them cooking)
5. Quarter the sprouts, vertically
6. Mix sprouts with quark & bacon, season with salt & pepper and dump into casserole dish
• Top very lightly with bread crumbs
  
7. Into the 175°C [350F] oven for 10 minutes
8. Then under the broiler for 5 (to brown the breadcrumbs)
   

Notes:

1. Optionally, top with cheese too - although that adds a whole mess of calories and fat and might overwhelm the taste of the sprouts
2. Veggie substitutions might include green beans, asparagus