Turkey with Turnip and Pear

My CSA challenge has really been a challenge.  I have to say that the true challenge came when I was confronted with turnips ... and turnips ... and turnips.  They came with every shipment.  I had more turnips than I knew what to do with.  The reason for my situation came not only due to the number of turnips, but also from the fact that I have rarely cooked with the root vegetable.  

Sure, I could have boiled them, pureed them into a smooth nothingness, and, voila, an alternative to mashed potatoes or with mashed potatoes.  And only that.  I have never cooked with turnips.  So I needed to come up with another use for them.   So, I did what I often do and that is to consult the Internet.  I searched for various recipes for turnips. There a lot of recipes, as there are for pretty much any ingredient.  However, there was one recipe that caught my eye, because it called for a combination of ingredients which appealed to my stomach ... turnips and pears.  The recipe was from Bon Appetit, but I decided to give it my own twist.

The twist involved combining the turnips and pears with turkey, which works on so many levels. Turkey is a very good protein to work with because its its flavor is complementary to so many fruits, vegetables and starches.  This goes well beyond cranberries and potatoes.  Both the turnips and the pears paired very well with the turkey.  For this dish, I used a turkey thigh, rather than the breast or cutlets.  The reason is the preparation.  Given the top of the stove treatment, which involves higher heat over a shorter period of time, the added fat content in the turkey thighs helped to keep the meat moist.

This was a very good dish for turnips, and a great alternative to simply mashing them like potatoes.  While my plating still needs some work, this is the type of dish that I think could look fancy enough to appear on restaurant menus.  

TURKEY WITH TURNIP AND PEAR

Adapted from recipe by Bon Appetit

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 turkey thigh, about 1 1/2 pounds, cut into

     four even sized pieces

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 medium pear, peeled, cored and chopped

1 medium turnip, peeled and chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 teaspooin fresh thyme leaves, plus more for serving

1/2 cup salted, roasted macadamia nuts, chopped

Directions:

1.  Brown the chicken.  Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.   Season turkey with salt and pepper and cook, skin side down, until skin is browned and crisp 10-12 minutes.  Transfer turkey to a plate.

2. Prepare the sauce.  Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in same skillet over medium high heat.  Add onion, pear, turnip and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring ocassionally until pear and turnip are soft and starting to turn golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.  Carefully add wine and thyme, then return chicken to skillet, skin side up.  Cook until wine is almost completely evaporated and turkey is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.

3.  Complete the dish.  Plate the dish and serve topped with macadamia nuts.

ENJOY!

Mushroom Bolognese

When one thinks of a Bolognese, it is a sauce made with onions, celery, tomatoes and cheese, with meat.  Beef, pork or lamb.  One never thinks of a vegetarian Bolognese and a vegan Bolognese gives me the shivers.  A true Bolognese has been on my short list of dishes to make.  However, because Clare does not eat beef, pork or lamb, that dish has to wait for a night when I am only cooking for myself.  

In the meantime, I decided that I would make a Bolognese recipe that Clare would eat.  I found a recipe by Sarah Grueneberg, a Top Chef contestant, which provided a good starting point.  The one thing that caught my attention was the use of a variety of ingredients at the outset ... not just onions, carrots and celery (which are usually found in Bolognese sauces), but also parsnips and turnips.   Grueneberg's recipe also calls for the use of dried porcini mushrooms and king oyster mushrooms.  The latter mushrooms are chopped with the vegetable mixture, while the former provide the "meat" in the dish.

I decided to alter the dish in a few ways.  First, there was the mushrooms.  Rather than use porcini and king oyster mushrooms, I used a combination of portobello, oyster and shiitake mushrooms.  I decided to use half with the vegetable mixture and keep half sliced to serve with the pasta.  The substitution of these mushrooms for the porcini created another issue.  This led to the second substitution.  Grueneberg relied upon the water from rehydrating the porcini for the sauce.  I needed something in place of that liquid.  This was not really a problem at all.  I used about 1 cup of vegetable stock in place of the porcini water.

The third substitution involves the pasta.  Grueneberg uses spaghetti in her recipe.  When it comes to a Bolognese, I think that a flat pasta is better, because it shows off all of the elements in the sauce.   Fettuccine would work well with this recipe; however, if you can find pappardelle, that is the pasta of choice.  Its wide flat noodles provide the most space for the Bolognese sauce to cling to the pasta. 

Finally, the recipe calls for the use of 1/2 cup of wine.  Given that I was making a Bolognese sauce, a wine from Emilia-Romagna -- the region where Bologna is located -- would have been the ideal choice.  I could not put my hands on a non-sparking wine from the region, such as a Sangiovese di Romagna.  So, I went with a Sangiovese wine that is a lot easier to find ... a Chianti Classico from Tuscany.

MUSHROOM BOLOGNESE

Adapted from a recipe by Sarah Grueneberg 

and available at Food & Wine
and some other recipes

Ingredients:
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1 celery rib, coarsely chopped
1 medium parsnip, chopped
1/2 small turnip, chopped
3 ounces of shiitake mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces of portobello mushrooms, sliced
3 ounces of oyster mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry red wine (preferably Sangiovese)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon minced rosemary
1 1/2 pounds of pappardelle (or fettuccine)
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Prepare the vegetable base.  Pulse the onion, carrot, celery, parsnip, turnip and one-half of the mushrooms in a food processor until finely chopped  In a large pot, heat the oil.  Add the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 20 minutes. 

2. Make the Bolognese sauce.  Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until fragrant, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Add the wine and red pepper, and cook until the wine evaporates.  Add the vegetable stock, cover partially and cook over low heat, stirring until thick, about another 25 minutes.  Add the cream, rosemary and 1/4 cup of grated cheese and simmer for 5 minutes. 

3. Cook the pasta.  Heat a pot with salted water until it boils.  Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package.  (Generally, dried pasta takes several minutes while fresh pasta only takes about 1 to 2 minutes.)

4.  Finish the dish.  Add the warm pasta, butter and 1 cup of water to the sauce and toss, stirring until the pasta is well coated.  Serve immediately.

ENJOY!