October 20, 2004
Creamy Turnip Decadence
I told my friend Chris that we were hoping to start a recipe page on the blog someday, so he sent me some recipes for it. Thank you Chris!! However, these look too good to save for someday, which around here, may be quite a ways off. Plus, the way Chris writes cracks me up.
Little salad turnips sliced and dropped into a salad, or tossed with some vinegar, are wonderful, but what happens when you get tired of them? Or what if you buy some old ones, or leave them around too long? What about those big honking things you get in the supermarket when you’re jonesing for some Old Shaw taste but it’s mid-winter? And what do you do with rutabaga, anyway? Well, here’s one way to make turnips your favorite food all over again.
Serves 4 as a starch side-dish
Ingredients
Turnips, cut in fat wedges like potatoes, enough for 4 people as a large side-dish
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup water
4 Tb unsalted butter
3 Tb Dijon mustard
2 Tb finely minced chives
Cut the turnips into fat wedges, like the fries you get at steak restaurants. Toss them just to coat in oil and sprinkle with salt and a little pepper. Spread on a baking sheet, on their backs, separated from each other. Bake in a 400° oven for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, until they’re getting brown around the edges and are probably hissing a bit. (They’re perfectly tasty at this point, but a little bitter and very much not decadent. So....)
About 1 minute before they’re done, in a large saucepan bring the cream and water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and whisk in the butter and mustard. Add the turnip wedges and chives and toss for about 1 minute. Serve immediately.
Notes
* This does not reheat well, as the sauce will separate; tastes great but looks nasty. Don’t worry, though–there’re not going to be a lot of leftovers.
* You can do this with potatoes too, but they don’t generally have enough flavor to stand up to this wonderfully evil sauce. This is a very good way to bake the potatoes, however, if you skip the sauce; they take about 40-45 minutes.
* Incidentally, when we say “bring to a boil,” we mean boil. Don’t think that cream can’t boil without burning or some such nonsense; it’s not true. Boil that sucker!
* If you want to expand this recipe, the most important thing is to keep the cream and water in identical proportions. If they get unbalanced, the sauce will not emulsify and it will be slick and greasy instead of thick and creamy. The mustard helps keep it bound as well. You can use light cream or milk, but you will have a lot of trouble keeping it all together, and may need to take it off the heat to beat in the butter in separated small pats.
