Turnips done right!

So this week I have to say the pull from the CSA was a bit boring. We got a bag of turnips, frisee, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, and scallions....Tom/Allison (Tallison) and us decided to split the vegetables up in complete bunches instead of halving everything...we got the turnips, they got the kohlrabi, we go mustard greens, they got lettuce, etc. I was sad to see the kohlrabi go since it is a new favorite, but Tallison is not to be trifled with. Also, on a side note, The Alleged Farm newsletter was really bizzare this week and basically is 4 paragraphs of the guy complaining about plastic being wasted in those little pieces that go under a dress color when you buy it in the store so they look more attractive on the clothes rack. Great.

So today I decided to tackle the turnips; Paul was working until 7 and that means dinner is whatever I make! So turnips...what the hell do you do with a turnip? What is a turnip? It's a root that is related to radish and cabbage...or something. I dunno, look it up on wikipedia. I tried a piece of one raw and while tasty enough I was looking for something a bit more daring. I popped open "How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian" and it suggested "Brazing and Glazing" turnips (or any root vegetable for that matter). Basically this involves chopping the turnips into chunks after peeling them and then putting them into a pan with some butter, white cooking wine, salt and pepper...let it boil then simmer for about 15 minutes covered...then uncover and turn up the heat and let all the liquids boil off. You end up with delicious tasting turnips. They naturally have a mild "horse radish" taste mixed with a bit of fat and salt it works out very very well! Mixed it all with brown rice and it made a great side, I'll definitely make this again!

I decided to use the mustard greens in a salad but I didn't try them first so wasn't really thinking as I grabbed a handful and mixed it with some arugula from our garden. Surprisingly mustard greens taste a lot like mustard! So the two flavors clashed a bit and made for a mouthful of some very strong tasting lettuce...never again will I say that salad is bland/boring! Luckily we had some romaine Dole pre washed mixed whatever in the refrigerator so I mixed that in and that balanced it out. Made for a decent salad although in the future I would throw in the mustard greens or the arugula, not both.

So we were able to use quite a bit but still have a few random things left...I guess if we can't think of anything interesting to make tomorrow I'll just cut up whats left and throw it into a stirfry (where random vegetables go to die... deliciously).