Your Nutritionista: You're Probably Not Eating Enough: Turnips

I got a few red turnips in my Door to Door box last week, and I admit, I had no idea what to do with them. When I was googling around to find out, I discovered this hilarious description:

…

I can’t stop laughing at “leaden spheres.” But anyway, turnips are actually a good source of…

You said it! I’ve written about turnips several times in various newspapers. Turnips can be like cranky relatives, but they can be terrific too. Here’s a recipe for turnip soup. If you don’t tell anyone what they’re eating, they’ll like it better. You can tell them after they’ve finished and you’ll have some converts.

Btw, you said “red turnips.” The recipe is for the white/purple turnips (but would work with red ones, only not as many because rutabagas are much bigger). Were yours rutabagas?

Creamy Turnip Soup with Buttered Crumbs

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup packed fresh bread crumbs

4 medium white turnips, peeled and diced

1 large all-purpose potato, peeled and diced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 large shallot, peeled and chopped

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1-1/2 teaspoons salt or to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

up to one cup light cream or half and half cream

Heat the butter in a sautepan over medium heat. When it has melted and looks foamy, add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 minutes or until toasty brown. Set aside. Place the turnips, potato, carrots, shallot, stock, salt, pepper and thyme in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Puree the ingredients (food processor, blender or stick blender). Return the soup to the pan. Add cream to taste. Heat through. Add salt and pepper if needed. Serve topped with buttered bread crumbs. Makes 4-6 servings

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National Junk Food Day

Anyone know what this is all about?
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Yum!

Years ago, when I decided that I was not going to stuff the Thanksgiving turkey, I decided to stuff it with lemon, oranges, celery, onions and herbs — and I never looked back. The ginger is a great addition. This will be dinner Saturday night!

submitted by Val valeriefoster@charter.net

Roasted Chicken with Orange, Lemon and Ginger

Roasted Chicken with Orange, Lemon and Ginger

Today I gave a private cooking lesson and one of the foods I taught was roasted chicken. A long time ago I read that if you know how to roast a chicken you can cook a delicious dinner anytime.

This was delicious. It had a refreshing ginger-citrus-honey coating and it came out glossy and dark-skinned and crispy. The pan juices were sweet and tangy all at the same time. There was enough liquid for the meat and also for the rice I made as an accompaniment (roasted asparagus with Balsamic vinegar too).

Here’s the recipe:

Roasted Chicken with Orange, Lemon and Ginger

• 1 roasting chicken, about 4-6 pounds

• 1 orange

• 1 lemon

• 1 large scallion, finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger

• 2 tablespoons softened margarine, or use coconut oil

• 2 tablespoons honey

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1/2 cup orange juice

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rinse and dry the chicken; remove pinfeathers; remove the giblets. Grate the orange and lemon rinds into a bowl. Halve the fruit and squeeze the orange to extract the juice; add more if necessary to make the 1/2 cup. Squeeze the lemon to make the 2 tablespoons of juice. Mix the orange and lemon juices together and set aside. Place the fruit inside the cavity of the chicken. To the bowl of citrus peels, add the scallion, parsley, ginger, margarine and honey. Mix the ingredients until well blended. Rub onto all sides of the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the chicken breast side down on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees. Roast another 15 minutes. Pour the reserved juices over the chicken and roast another 15 minutes. Turn chicken breast side up. Continue to roast, basting occasionally, for another 45-60 minutes or until fully cooked (a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast reads 160 degrees. Remove the chicken to a carving board and let rest for 15 minutes before carving. Serve with the pan juices. Makes 6 servings

Oh no!

I had your birthday marked as today — and was going to wish you a big, happy one! So sorry. Hope it was terrific.

I just found out that Farmer Jones’ strawberry fields are open for picking, which is exactly what I plan on doing Thursday afternoon. Love your posts, Ronnie.

Submitted by Val Foster (valeriefoster@charter.net)

twohungrydudes:

365 Days of Food

#157 Strawberry Jam (by JoeFoodie)

Using our fresh picked strawberries, we made jam this evening.  A fun, if labor intensive, process.  The jam is delicious - lots of strawberry chunks, super sweet with a slightly sour finish.  

We had a strawberry patch in our backyard when I was a kid. If there was a big harvest my mother would cook up some strawberry jam and the house would smell like the cotton candy concession at an amusement park. Then there came the time when someone knocked over the filled Mason jars. It was proibably my brother, nicknamed Moose for obvious reasons. My mother had just filled those jars and hadn’t yet sealed the tops. All the thick red liquid spilled onto the kitchen floor like molten sugar lava. It was a complete disaster. Strawberry season was over and my mother, who had worked so long and hard, never made strawberry jam again. I am so happy to read that someone is doing it. BRAVO!

If you do it again, try adding peppercorns to some. DELISH!!

Apple Pie for my Birthday

Hi Gillyf

I wrap baked apple pies in double plastic wrap and find that they keep well in the freezer for up to one year.

Happy Birthday!

Hope your birthday was fantastic! Apple pie is a terrific tradition. If you make several at a time, how long can they stay in the freezer? 

submitted by gillyf

Apple Pie for my Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday so I ate a big fat hunk of …. APPLE PIE!

Because apple pie is better than any cake I can think of, especially store-bought cake, except for, maybe, Magnolia Bakery coconut cake. But if I bought one of those I would pick at it all weekend until everyone in my family ate half the cake and I ate the other half.

I love apple pie and my mother served one for every birthday of my adult life. There was always a candle stuck in the middle, just as if it were a cake. And so the tradition continues.

This year for the first time my grandson Zev tried the apple pie and declared it delicious. He’s kind of fussy and doesn’t eat much, so I consider his validation a great honor.

Btw, the best apples to use for pie are Rhode Island Greening, Granny Smith, Idared, Jonagold, Stayman, Golden Delicious, Braeburn, Gravenstein, Newton Pippin, Winesap, Northern Spy and Baldwin. Some of these are only available in Farmer’s Markets and farms. If you can get them, you might want to do what I do — make several pies when the good apples are ready and freeze them (fully baked). They are fine for about a year (wrap them in double layers of plastic wrap). Thaw and rebake to crisp the crust: place the thawed pie in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Here’s the recipe:

Apple Pie

crust:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel, optional

1/2 cup cold butter

1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening

4-6 tablespoons cold milk, juice, water or melted ice cream

apple filling

To make the crust: Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon peel, if used, in a large bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into chunks and add the chunks to the flour mixture. Work the fat into the flour mixture until the ingredients resemble crumbs (use your hands, a pastry blender or the pulse feature of a food processor). Add the liquid, using only enough to gather pastry into a soft ball of dough (start with 4 tablespoons). Cut the dough in half and flatten each half to make a disk shape. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it stand at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour a pastry board or clean work surface. With a rolling pin, roll one half of the dough on the floured surface into a circle about 1/8-inch thick, making sure the circle is larger than the pie pan by about 1 inch. Place the dough in a 9” or 10” pie pan. Pour the apple filling into the pastry-lined pan. Cut the butter into small pieces and place on top of the filling. Roll out the remaining dough and place it over the filling. Gently press the bottom and top crusts together along the flared edge of the pie pan. For a fluted rim, press your thumb and index finger against the outside of the rim, or crimp it with the tines of a fork or the blunt side of a knife. Cut steam vents in the top crust with the tip of a sharp knife or the tines of a fork. Bake the pie for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Apple Filling:

3 pounds pie apples (Rhode Island Greenings, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Idared, Stayman, Winesap, Baldwin, Jonagold, Braeburn

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter

Peel and core the apples then cut them into slices. Place the slices in a bowl. Add the 1/2 cup sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and flour and toss the ingredients to coat the apple slices evenly.

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Soccer Food

My Dad took me to a baseball game once and all I talked about afterward was the hot dogs. He laughed about it for ages, but really, hots dogs are an integral part of the baseball game experience, don’t you think?

Like chili and guacamole and nachos are for football.

Like popcorn and basketball.

So, the World Cup is coming. What do soccer lovers eat while they watch?

I called Tigin, an “Official Soccer Bar” near where I live. They say the fans there order Fish and Chips or Shepherd’s Pie for the afternoon games but if it’s a morning game they’ll probably go for the full Irish Breakfast (bacon, eggs, black and white pudding, grilled tomatoes and baked beans).

But maybe there should be 32 different dishes for each country playing?

If you’re a soccer fan, you probably already know about www.bigsoccer.com. That site has game schedules and also a list of pubs near you that will be showing the games so you can watch with fellow fans. (Also everything else there is to know about soccer.)

But if you’re home, what do you cook?

That’s easy if Italy is playing (pasta). Or Mexico (nachos). Or the United States (barbecue). But what about Slovenia. Or Ghana?

I have to do some thinking. Don’t want to serve the same old thing all the time.

I’ll keep you posted.

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