Putting the cart before the horse: miso and honey glazed turnips

If you eat seasonally, and locally in New York, during the winter, you eat a LOT of turnips.  Annalena's friend Patty once said, that shopping at the Farmers Market, from December to March means  "apples. turnips... apples... turnips... turnips... turnips."  All too true, ragazzi, all too true.

Now, while Annalena does not suggest a diet based completely on turnips, or even eating them every day, she does suggest that we all get better acquainted with them.

Facts are facts:  turnips are available all year long and, like many of the vegetables we do not think of as varying over the course of a year, they do.  Not very long from now, the markets will be filled with baby tokyo turnips, with fresh greens on the top of them.  Annalena uses them, in their totality, to make turnip and turnip green soup, or stir fried turnip greens with roasted turnips (you DO know, by the way, that true broccoli rabb, "cima di rape," is turnip greens, didn't you?  Well, you do now).  As the year goes by, the turnips get bigger, and the greens get uckier.  At this time of year, what we have are the big winter storage turnips: the ones that came out of the ground before it froze, with leaves that were more like mud than green, and which store in cellars.  Turnips store very well.  And that is why you can get them at this time of year, and why they were such an important part of diets in the early parts of this country's history, and in the diets of climates where winter is long, cold, and nasty.


Turnip soup.  Roasted turnip.  Mashed turnip with potatoes.  Fried turnips.    What next?

Hmmm.  A problem.  So when Annalena sees a recipe for turnips which intrigues her, she tries it.  And this one was a good one.  She presents it to you, urging you to try it, with some tips for changing it.

You will need to buy something you probably do not have in your home:  miso.  Preferably white miso or, as you will see it sold  "shiromiso"  Don't bother with the dried stuff.  A friend of Annalena's once said, correctly  "dried miso is dead miso."  Using dried, when you can get fresh, is like using dried basil when you can get fresh.  Either use the fresh or don't use it.  You will not need more than a couple of tablespoons for this recipe, so either do some research, buy a small quantity, or share it with your friends.  You will also need a mild type of honey, water, and a pound of turnips.  Some unsalted butter too.

This one is easy.  First, you peel the turnips.  This may strike you as odd, but you need to do it because you are going to be braising them, and in order to get the flavor fully into the roots, you need to remove the skin, which will inhibit the process.  Slice them into about half inch pieces, and then put them into a pan or pot.

The dimensions of this pot are going to determine how your recipe cooks, so think about this a bit.  A pot that is wide, and shallow, is going to cook the liquid (we are coming to that) away very quickly, and you may need to add more.  A pot that is narrower, and deep, will take longer to cook away the liquid, and you may have to remove the turnips to prevent turnip puree.  But we will address this.

Now, whatever the pot you use is, put in the turnips, at least a tablespoon of miso, a tablespoon of honey, two tablespoons of unsalted butter, and two cups of water.    This mixture is going to produce a mild dish, somewhat on the sweet side.  If you want something saltier, up the miso, but don't go over two tablespoons.

Stir everything together, and bring the heat to medium high.  Keep an eye on things, and after five minutes, check both the water, and the texture of the turnips.  Ideally, the water will evaporate to a syrupy sauce at about the same time the turnips go to al dente.  In reality, don't count on this happening.  If it looks like you are getting to syrup and your turnips are  too tough, add more water.  If the turnips are cooking, but you still have a lot of liquid, take out the turnips, raise the heat, and boil the liquid down to a few tablespoons.

When you get to the syrupy stage, stir the turnips around gently, so as not to break them, and also to coat them completely. All together, this won't take you more than ten minutes.

So, what was the hardest part of that recipe?  Probably buying the miso.

This is an excellent side dish for hearty meats, like the duck breast with which Annalena and the  Guyman had them last night.  The miso gives them a slightly Asian taste, so think along those lines with what else you are serving.  Maybe steamed fish, or something like that?

Next up, ragazzi:  if this dish was easy, we're going to work for the next one, and it will be worth it: we're going to make a Spanish (or Greek) chicken dish, with a sauce made of - ready for this? - almonds, and bread.