Turnips (In their Own Greens)

Turnip greens can be wonderfully delicious, if they are fresh and lovely. Unfortunately, in the current week's share, you might not have the greens, as the leaves were starting to wilt, and John did not think they were in good enough shape to give to the members on Tuesday. So if you are hanging on to last week's turnips still, you can make the recipe as written. If your turnips are missing their greens, the part of the recipe that deals with the root is fabulous all by itself, or use some of your chard for the base.

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The grating disc attachment to our food processor has taken on exagerated importance in our lives as CSA subscribers. It's not salad spinner important, but it is playing a key role in the quality of our lives. This doesn't sound terribly exciting, but it was very easy and we really enjoyed it.

Turnips

3 small turnips

1 onion

2T butter

2T olive oil

1 clove garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Separate the turnips from their greens, reserving the greens for use below. Peel the turnips and feed them, one at a time, through the feeding tube of your food processor, using the fine grating attachment. The turnips should look like short pieces of very white spaghetti. Set them aside and give the processor a quick rinse. Peel the onion, cut it in half and feed each half through the feeding tube of the food processor using the fine slicer attachment. Heat all of the butter and half of the olive oil in a saute pan and carmelize the onions (10-15 minutes). Add the turnips and cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring occassionally. Season with salt and pepper.

For the turnip greens, clean and dry them thoroughly. Remove any tough stems. From this point they can go straight into a pan in which you have heated some oil and sauteed some garlic. If you prefer, you could roll up the leaves and slice finely as you would for a chiffonade of herbs, then cook. The longer you cook the greens, the more bitterness (and nutrition) will cook out. Season with salt and pepper.

We plated the greens with a mound of turnip spaghetti in the center of the plate and served this with very lean grilled elk steak sliced thinly against the grain over the top. (Hey, a very generous client gave us some elk from a recent hunting trip, it's not like I tracked it down). It would have been great with any meat, or on it's own. The sweetness of the cooked turnips pairs well with the slight bitterness of the greens.

- Jet Doye