262 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
262 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
topics
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christmas
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8147937
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-----
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# Tried and tested: sprouts
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## Our new weekly column sources the best gadgets, shops and food. Today: the
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sprout, from soggy blob to budding star
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![A classic brassica? Flower sprouts
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][1]
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A classic brassica? Flower sprouts Photo: MARKS & SPENCER
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By Rose Prince 7:31PM GMT 19 Nov 2010
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Anyone with a love of all things miniature will coo over flower sprouts. The
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latest innovation in vegetable refinement has resulted in a Lilliputian
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cabbage, darkish green tinted with ruby. They are gorgeous to look at, but are
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they really sprouts?
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When I was growing up, I knew only one type of sprout and it came from
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Brussels - allegedly. Enormous, acid yellow, sulphurous and soggy, it was the
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bane of winter lunchtimes and the downside of Christmas.
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The conventional way to prepare them so they were evenly cooked was with a
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cross nicked in the stem. All this did, in the end, was allow boiled water to
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seep inside, destroying any hope of crunch when you bit in.
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Sprouts were, not to exaggerate, a good enough reason to emigrate (the English
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novelist Ford Madox Ford wrote that among the many things he loved about
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Provence was that the sprout could not grow there "at all" - a statement that
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is not actually true).
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But this would now seem unfair. The sprout-growing fraternity, nothing if not
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determined, spent decades reinventing the vegetable, breeding sweeter, denser
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and smaller varieties and losing the rank smell and flavour. No cross is
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needed in the stem anymore.
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## Related Articles
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* [The perfect hunter's lunch][2]
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05 Nov 2010
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* [Rose Prince's recipes for November][3]
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04 Nov 2010
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* [Roasted partridge with pork and prune sausages][4]
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04 Nov 2010
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* [Grilled marinated fish][5]
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04 Nov 2010
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* [Whipped potato and crumbly cheese with leek butter][6]
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04 Nov 2010
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* [Tried & Tested: Lacanche range cookers][7]
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11 Nov 2010
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After that came ''sprout trees'', or the sale of the whole stalk. Cut straight
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from the (inedibly tough) stalk, the sprouts taste fresher and less starchy;
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they are not the gimmick they appear to be and are worth buying over sprouts
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that are cut loose, even if awkward to carry.
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Next, we had sprout tops, the cabbage tip of the plant with tiny sprouts
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growing at its base, formerly given to cattle. This is humble food, but since
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learning to dress sprout tops with hot butter or olive oil, lemon juice and
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rosemary, I have not looked back, and love them dearly.
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After that on the sprout's continuing road to chic-dom came red sprouts,
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including a new variety, "red delicious", that keeps its colour when boiled.
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Flavour-wise they are disappointing. Their beauty, it must be said, is skin
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deep.
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And finally we have flower sprouts to add to the brood, developed by British
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seed wizards, Tozer, and now farmed in Lincolnshire, Angus and
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Gloucestershire. Their season lasts from November to March. These compact
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little buds are partly open - there is no tight ball of leaves inside like a
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normal sprout, though they are about the same size. Interestingly, flower
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sprouts are the result of a ''marriage'' between a brussels sprout and hardy,
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creamy, nutritious kale.
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I wonder, before trying them, if this could be the moment when sprouts finally
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lose the chip on their shoulder and join the ranks of favourite vegetables
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like carrots and spuds?
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I boiled them in water with a large pinch of salt (to help fix their colour)
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for five minutes (for a softer texture they could have been cooked a further
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two.)
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The verdict: delicious, but these are no longer sprouts. Overwhelmingly,
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flower sprouts have the metallic sweetness of kale. Their sproutiness, their
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Sproutlichkeit, has gone.
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Oddly, though, I expect these new vegetables will be a hit. I'll miss the old
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ghoulish orbs. They won't be banned from Christmas: it seems too cruel. But
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they may have to share the plate with a blossoming new cousin.
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* £1.49 for 140g of flower sprouts, exclusively from Marks & Spencer from
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now until March
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[X][8] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][9]
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* Share: [Share][8] [ ][10] [ ][11]
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[Tweet][12]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/8147937/Tried-and-tested-
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sprouts.html
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Telegraph
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## [Christmas][13]
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* ### [Lifestyle »][14]
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* ### [Food and Drink »][15]
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[![St Albans Cathedral Choristers snowball fight after morning rehearsals][16]
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][17]
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### [Preparing for Christmas][17]
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[![Father Christmas sitting on a chair with a laptop][18]][19]
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### [Send a Christmas announcement][19]
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[![The Telegraph's Christmas Charity Appeal 2010.][20]][21]
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### [Christmas Charity Appeal 2010][21]
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[![Matt Christmas cards][22]][23]
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### [Matt Christmas cards][23]
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[X][8] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][9]
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Share:
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* [ ][8]
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* [ ][10]
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* [ ][11]
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* [Tweet][12]
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* Advertisement
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![][24]
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## [Christmas 2010 »][13]
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[![Christmas 2009][25]][13]
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[Christmas Home And Garden][26]
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[Christmas Travel Guide][27]
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[Christmas Food And Drink][28]
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[Christmas Gift Ideas][29]
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Advertisement
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Sponsored features
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Loading
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most viewed
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* TODAY
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* PAST WEEK
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* PAST MONTH
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1. [3.5 minutes of terror: Air France crash dropped at 10,000 feet a
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minute][30]
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2. [Royal wedding: a peek into royal couple's honeymoon paradise][31]
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3. [Councils spend 100m on taxpayer-funded credit cards][32]
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4. [Father of diving champion Tom Daley loses battle with cancer][33]
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5. [Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge wreck reveals secrets of the real
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Pirate of the Caribbean][34]
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1. [O'Bama? Oh puh-lease!][35]
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2. [Rapture: the end was not nigh, after all][36]
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3. [Cannes 2011: Peter Fonda encourages his grandchildren to take up arms
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against President Barack Obama][37]
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4. [Marmite made illegal in Denmark][38]
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5. [Apocalypse not right now: 'Rapture' end of world fails to
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materialise][39]
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1. [Joe Biden opens his mouth about US Navy SEALs][40]
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2. [Royal wedding live][41]
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3. [Italians evacuate Rome over 'big one' fears][42]
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4. [Osama bin Laden dead: Blackout during raid on bin Laden compound][43]
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5. [Kate Middleton's family take action over nude pictures 'betrayal'][44]
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CHRISTMAS EDITOR'S CHOICE
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### [Teach your children to cook Christmas][45]
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[![Christmas lunch ][46] ][45]
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Cassandra Jardine, mother of five, sets out to get her children to cook
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Christmas lunch this year.
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### [Christmas around the world][47]
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### [The worst things about Christmas][48]
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### [The saintly spirit of Christmas][49]
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### [Earn yourself that mince pie][50]
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Advertisement
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Classified Advertising
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* [Shopping][51]
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* [Culture][52]
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* [Summer Breaks][53]
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Loading
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var puffs_8120641 = new Array();
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