Turnips ...

My father is at it again ... He has two bushels of turnips from this years garden that he is trying to use up over the next 3-4 months. (Sorry, he did not offer me any.)

A friend of his said that there was a soup that was based on turnips and that it originated somewhere in Michigan. Therefore, my father called me and asked me if I knew what that would be since I lived for two years in Detroit.

The only soup that I can remember that contained turnips was a borsch that I had somewhere south of Winnepeg, Manitoba back in the 80's at one of the Mennonite cultural sites. Other than that, I am drawing a blank.

Any ideas??

You could use them for Chinese Turnip Cake. The steamed then panfried ones you get at dim sum. I have a family recipe somewhere... I will post when I find it.

JL:

I don't know any turnip soup recipes from Michigan but here are two that may be of interest...

Potage de congre
This is a stewlike dish from Brittany that features sea-eel; I'm sure the recipe could work with a number of other fish varieties. The main ingredients are: eel, potatoes, onion, leek, shalot, garlic, turnips, carrots, mint, parsley. A court-bouillon is made with the eel-head, onion, carrot, and herbs (bay leaf, junniper, bouquet-garni).

Vlaamse heldere soep
This dish is a very simple, tasty and healthy soup made in Belgium. In essence, it's a vegetable soup which can be made using chicken stock or just water. Typically it includes: turnips, carrots, leeks, peas. Use butter for initial saut

I just made one of my favorite soups last night, and it contains turnips, though they are not the main ingredient. It's a scandanavian yellow split pea soup, from Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant. Bring to a boil in eight cups water 2 cups of yellow split peas (a 1 pound bag); add the following, all roughly chopped: 2 peeled potatoes, 2 large carrots, 3 celery stalks, 1 large onion, 1 large turnip, and 2 peeled parsnips. Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until everything is very soft. Puree with a hand blender and then add 2-3 teaspoons dry mustard, a dash of allspice, two teaspoons salt, lots of freshly ground pepper, and one teaspoon each of ground cumin, dried marjoram, and dried thyme. The soup will be very thick, hearty, and delicious, and doesn't miss the soup bone, which I had thought necessary for a good split pea soup. I double this to have some left over to freeze. There are various other recipes that contain turnips (including a turnip and pear soup) in the "Finland" section of this Moosewood cookbook, one of my favorites. Since root vegetables are so widely used in Scandanavian cooking, though, I'd bet you'd be able to find other turnip recipes in any such cookbook. Lots of Finns and etc. settled in Michigan which might explain the recipe your dad's friend is trying to remember.

Anyone have any ideas for using a couple pounds of turnips? I just got my first delivery from Genesis Growers CSA and it was heavy on radishes and turnips given the time of year. Radish ideas welcome too, for that matter...

thaiobsessed--

Believe it or not, LTHers have been precisely there with you on the too-many-CSA-radish issue.

Turnips and lamb are an absolute made-in-heaven match. I use some in my braised lamb shanks, but you could use a lot more turnip in a stew. Use something fatty, like lamb breast: the turnips go especially well with fatty lamb. Red wine in the gravy helps, too.

Geo

On the radish front, I'd been pickling carrots for some time per the USDA recipe - it never occurred to me that I could can my favorite vegetable pickle of all: the radish/carrot combo used as a garnish in an awful lot of Asian cultures - you know, the one that goes on Bahn Mi, or on top of your lettuce wrap in Korean BBQ. Even though Daikon are milder than many other radishes, I could see where, with a bit of experimentation to deal with the individual nature of the radishes you get, this might be a good use. Here's the recipe; I can't wait until the farmer's market season opens to try this (I love this garnish!)

FWIW, don't try pickling with purpley-colored vegetables if you want variation in color - I threw purple carrots in my carrot coins last year, and they bled as if they were beets. I note that in the linked recipe, the purple radish does the same to a lesser degree.

Geo wrote:Turnips and lamb are an absolute made-in-heaven match.
Geo

Agreed -- and one of my favorite applications is a "stew" that I had in Tibet that was essentially just soup made from a wide range of lean but largely unidentifiable sheep parts (that is, cut differently from what we do, and with lots of ribs) and a ton of turnips.

Below is the recipe I worked up to reproduce that stew, from a column I used to write:

If you get to Lhasa, I highly recommend the Tibet Lhasa Kitchen and the Lhasa Snowland Restaurant, both of which are Tibetan-owned and offer really good local food and enthusiastic service. At Snowland, Indian food is offered, but we ordered Tibetan. We were brought plates of white rice, and we ladled the soup-like stews—yak stew with potatoes and lamb stew with turnips—over the rice. I figured it would be easier to get lamb here at home, so that’s the stew reproduced below.

Tibetan Lamb Stew
3 to 3-1/2 lb. bony, flavorful lamb parts (see note)
12 cups water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3-1/2 to 4 lb. turnips, peeled and cut into chunks
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
cooked white rice

Put the lamb and water in a large pot and bring to a boil, skimming off the scum as it forms. When scum stops forming, add garlic, salt, pepper, and turnips. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1-1/2 hours (turnips should be really soft, and the lamb should be coming off the bone).

Skim excess fat off the top of the stew. (If you’re really concerned about fat, you can cool the stew, which makes removing the fat much easier, then reheat before serving.) Just before serving, stir in the cilantro. Serves 8-10.

Note: Lamb is not cut up quite the same in Tibet as it is in the U.S., so it’s hard to parallel—or even say—exactly what cuts go into this stew. Also, the rangy, scrub-fed lambs of Tibet are heaps leaner than American lamb. That said, I found that lamb shanks and a couple of shoulder blade chops worked well. We had a few ribs in our bowls in Tibet, but the riblets I’ve found locally were very fatty, so I recommend not using them—except that they are probably the cheapest cuts of lamb you can buy, if your budget is tight but you love lamb. Your local grocery story may not have these cuts; a real butcher or an ethnic grocer may be a better bet.

Also note that this recipe could probably be cut in half, if you don’t want this much stew. I just got carried away buying lamb and turnips. (However, it does freeze well.)

Michelle, look what *I* did



last night inspired by your link to the carrot-radish Banh Mi pickle! Note the star anise in the bottom of the jars.

Mine aren't as pretty as hers, but still.... I bet they'll taste just as good!

Tnx for the link!

Geo

Wow! Now I have to do it! As soon as the farmer's market opens, I'm there!

Luckily, our farmer's market—Marché Jean-Talon—stays open all year!

One thing that really helped: long ago jamison22 suggested wearing a kevlar glove when using the benriner mandoline to julienne. Boy, was that ever on target! Carrots are really dangerous to mandoline, unless one is wearing the glove. So getting the daikon and carrots prepped was a snap (so to say), and I got the job done at warp speed.

Tnx again for the link!

Geo

HI,

Thanks for highlighting the kevlar glove tip. Every year when I make bread-and-butter pickles, I nick my fingers. It really is not a goal to add blood, sweat and tears to my food.

Regards,

C2,

That's REALLY putting yourself into your art!

I bought the MC 9365 gloves for $3.99 from eBay. Cheap price for a pound of flesh, eh?!

Geo

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to try some type of turnip/lamb stew this weekend (I'm toying with the idea of making it a curry). I really like the Bahn Mi pickle idea, too!

What follows is the recipe that we handed out to folks who came to my brother-in-law Lyle's stand at the very busy and somewhat er, "tony" Cherry Creek Farmers Market in Denver. People would take one look at the gorgeous turnips, pick them up, want to love them and then make a scrinchy face and nicely lay them back down. We got tired of the scrinchy face and not selling enough turnips so we started handing out a printed copy of the recipe below.

Turnip sales went way up after we handed this out and we got rave reviews from people who had never eaten a turnip in their lifetime. Lyle still serves these at big parties (he caters too) and some people think they are a new potato variety.

Just to give props, Lyle's farm is Pastures of Plenty and this recipe was something his mother Bettina taught him. I miss cooking with him and selling his produce. And writing up his recipes, that's the job that I did when we found people wouldn't even buy things because they didn't know how to cook them. Like roasted beets, which seem totally ubiquitous now . . . but people would hold them up and say, "what do I do with these?" So glad the 90s are over

Lyle’s Turnips in Buerre Noir (black butter)

This is a very traditional recipe that my brother-in-law Lyle learned from his mother Bettina. Despite the dish’s French translation, you are getting the butter as brown as you can without actually burning it. It is simple and it is lovely. You can also use this basic buerre noir with pan-seared fish--simply add a squeeze of lemon and a tablespoon of capers.


Ingredients
2 bunches White or Purple Globe Top turnips
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons roughly chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
salt & pepper

Method
1. Wash the turnips and trim off the tops and ends. Cut into quarters.
2. Steam the turnips in a covered pot with a ¼ cup of water, cook until soft to the fork.
3. Remove from heat, remove lid and set aside.
4. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir occasionally and keep an eye on it as it changes from a golden color to a slightly brown hue.
5. Turn heat down to low, add turnips.
6. Stir gently, allow the turnips to get completely covered with butter. Allow the butter to get darker, a rich, warm brown.
7. Sprinkle the turnips with chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste.


bjt

Wow -- does that turnips in beurre noir dish every sound yummy. As soon as turnips start showing up at the farmers markets, I'll be trying this out.

I think almost anything in browned butter tastes better.

How about Middle Eastern pickles? Turnips+beets+ vinegar + hot pepper + salt basically...

emdub wrote:
How about Middle Eastern pickles? Turnips+beets+ vinegar + hot pepper + salt basically...

So is the shocking-pink food coloring optional, then?

How about Middle Eastern pickles? Turnips+beets+ vinegar + hot pepper + salt basically...


So is the shocking-pink food coloring optional, then?

You have beets - those little rascals will add truly shocking color to any recipe, not to mention to you hands, cutting board, clothes. . .

sundevilpeg wrote:

How about Middle Eastern pickles? Turnips+beets+ vinegar + hot pepper + salt basically...


So is the shocking-pink food coloring optional, then?

You have beets - those little rascals will add truly shocking color to any recipe, not to mention to you hands, cutting board, clothes. . .

Sarah Silverman tweeted recently that after eating beets, just tying a string around one's finger would spare many trips to the emergency room.

David Hammond wrote:

sundevilpeg wrote:

How about Middle Eastern pickles? Turnips+beets+ vinegar + hot pepper + salt basically...


So is the shocking-pink food coloring optional, then?

You have beets - those little rascals will add truly shocking color to any recipe, not to mention to you hands, cutting board, clothes. . .

Sarah Silverman tweeted recently that after eating beets, just tying a string around one's finger would spare many trips to the emergency room.

I really did not like those turnip pickles until recently- BUT- I was at Salam a month ago, and the guy, I swear, was flirting with me.. (which is ok, I'm not all that!). He asked if I liked pickle, and I said "sure", not remembering it was the pink sort.. he gave me a huge container of them.

I got home and tasted, and actually liked these particular ones. I googled it to see about the food coloring- I also wondered! And found out that yes, beets are the trick!

Salam also includes lemon in their pickle- it's delish.

bjt wrote:What follows is the recipe that we handed out to folks who came to my brother-in-law Lyle's stand at the very busy and somewhat er, "tony" Cherry Creek Farmers Market in Denver. People would take one look at the gorgeous turnips, pick them up, want to love them and then make a scrinchy face and nicely lay them back down. We got tired of the scrinchy face and not selling enough turnips so we started handing out a printed copy of the recipe below.

Turnip sales went way up after we handed this out and we got rave reviews from people who had never eaten a turnip in their lifetime. Lyle still serves these at big parties (he caters too) and some people think they are a new potato variety.

Just to give props, Lyle's farm is Pastures of Plenty and this recipe was something his mother Bettina taught him. I miss cooking with him and selling his produce. And writing up his recipes, that's the job that I did when we found people wouldn't even buy things because they didn't know how to cook them. Like roasted beets, which seem totally ubiquitous now . . . but people would hold them up and say, "what do I do with these?" So glad the 90s are over

Lyle’s Turnips in Buerre Noir (black butter)

This is a very traditional recipe that my brother-in-law Lyle learned from his mother Bettina. Despite the dish’s French translation, you are getting the butter as brown as you can without actually burning it. It is simple and it is lovely. You can also use this basic buerre noir with pan-seared fish--simply add a squeeze of lemon and a tablespoon of capers.


Ingredients
2 bunches White or Purple Globe Top turnips
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons roughly chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley
salt & pepper

Method
1. Wash the turnips and trim off the tops and ends. Cut into quarters.
2. Steam the turnips in a covered pot with a ¼ cup of water, cook until soft to the fork.
3. Remove from heat, remove lid and set aside.
4. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir occasionally and keep an eye on it as it changes from a golden color to a slightly brown hue.
5. Turn heat down to low, add turnips.
6. Stir gently, allow the turnips to get completely covered with butter. Allow the butter to get darker, a rich, warm brown.
7. Sprinkle the turnips with chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste.


bjt

I prepared this very simple recipe for The Wife tonight. Excellent, easy.

I myself faced a bunch of turnips tonight and here's the funny thing, they were much bigger than what I recall having with Lyle's turnips, so if I had followed his recipe and "quartered" them, man I would have had some massive wedges of turnips and I'd imagine that would take much longer to make tasty. Or just plain cook properly as per the directions. So just to amend my post and recipe, cut the turnips into small-ish half to one-inch wedges.

I thought I was going to make Lyle/Bettina's turnips tonight but I was roasting for the first time an um, er Turkey Tenderloin (we are trying to be a little more mindful of our copious red meat intake) and I decided to just slow roast the turnips with the fake, I mean, turkey tenderloin. I cut up six turnips and sliced up two shallots and peeled three garlic cloves. I tossed all three in a nice amount of olive oil and sprinkled it with dried thyme. Cooked it alongside the turkey/loin thing which came out fine (moist, good flavor but still more turkey than you know, pork or beef) and let the turnips brown a bit more while the loin rested. By far the star of the night were the turnips. I especially liked how the shallots got crispy/carmelized and the turnips mellowed out. Before serving, I sprinkled a good 1/4 cup of roughly chopped parsley on them and that also added a nice brightness.

I know slow roasting season is almost over (I mean I hope it is) but this was a really easy and satisfying way to cook turnips.

bjt