Rumbledethumps

A very starchy, fatty dish with vegetables, therefore it's good for you. Nah, I'm not like that. If you have ingredients that are grown naturally and with care, it's all good for you. And this traditional English recipe is particularly good when served with the superlative Scottish condiment, Skirlie. In fact, the recipe below includes when to start the Skirlie so it's ready in time to eat with the Rumbledethumps. If nothing else, I get a kick of announcing that we're having Rumbledethumps with Skirlie for dinner!

4-5 servings

2lbs potatoes, cooked and mashed

20oz turnip or rutabaga or kohlrabi, cooked and mashed

⅓ cup (5oz/76gr) butter

24oz cabbage or Kale, sliced very thin

1 tsp salt 

Pepper to taste

3 oz cheddar cheese

1 recipe of Skirlie

1. Preheat the oven to around 350°F. 
2. If you have to boil the potato and turnip to make this, boil them together.
3. Melt all the butter in a frying pan and braise the cabbage or kale until softened (do not brown). 
4. Add the mashed potato and turnip to the cooked veg and combine thoroughly to incorporate all the browning and butter from the pan. 
5. Put the mash in an oven-proof baking tray, cover with a lid or aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until heated through and bubbling. 
6. While baking, make the Skirlie.
7. Remove the lid, sprinkle the cheese on top and cook until golden brown, another 15 minutes.
8. Serve with Skirlie on the side for each diner to sprinkle on top as needed.

Velouté of Turnips

What? Yes, that's right, a cream of turnip soup that even turnip-dislikers will enjoy. Just to be clear, a turnip is small and has white flesh. Often in grocery stores I have see either large, powerful tasting turnips or even large rutabagas (which have yellow flesh) labelled as 'turnip'.

1 leek (6oz/170gr) chopped fine

½ cup (4oz/114gr) butter

2lbs small turnips peeled and diced
4 cups chicken stock (veg stock for vegetarian)
1 cup crème fraîche
¾ to 1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

1. In a soup pot, saute the leek in the melted butter at a very low temperature, so that you're pretty much poaching the leek in the butter. Poach until completely soft.
2. Meanwhile bring the stock to a boil and put in the diced turnips. Set to simmer.
3. When the turnips are thoroughly cooked, dump in the leek and butter, the crème fraîche, the salt and pepper.
4. Blend, season, and pass through a strainer.
5. Adjust the thickness of the soup with whatever liquid remains in the pot.
6. Serve hot with fresh snipped chives.

Turnip Torte - you gotta try it!

Whaaat? A delicious, comforting dish made from turnip? It's surprising but, yes, it's pretty darned good. Assembly is very easy, but it does require quite a bit of cooking time.

NOTE: next time I'll try adding a few sprinkles of either whole or cracked caraway seeds.
Response - it was good!

2 lbs turnip

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter

½ lb havarti, grated

salt & freshly ground black pepper
Caraway seeds

1. Boil the unpeeled turnip in salted water until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the turnip(s); drain, cool, peel and cut into 1/4" thick rounds.
2. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
3. Spread the butter on the bottom of a shallow pie plate and sprinkle 1⁄4 of the cheese in the pan; top with 1⁄3 of the turnip slices, slightly overlapping them; season with salt, pepper and a light sprinkle of caraway, and repeat, salting, peppering and carraway-ing each layer of turnip until the last quarter measure of cheese is sprinkled on top.
4. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown; let it cool a bit before serving.
5. Goes very nicely as a main dish with some toasted, crusty rye bread.

Averted Fiasco à la Poule au pot

Laura Calder is fallible! I made her Poule au pot, and part of the recipe calls for 12 onions... TWELVE! I almost blindly followed my Hestia's directions and halted before it was too late, researched Poule au pot on other sites and saw that it must have been an error (although Martha Stewart does list 8 leeks in her recipe). I also put in 11 whole pepper corns instead of ground pepper. I'm not sure if that made a difference or not, but it turned out really yummy. Ben said it was 'scrummy'; he's cute when he's enthusiastic about my food so I let that one slide...
NOTE - this is also a good way of making some lightweight chicken stock; just save the cooking liquid you don't use when serving.

1 3-pound/1.5 kg chicken

Enough chicken stock to cover (about 8 cups)

1 bay leaf

1 sprig thyme

1 sprig tarragon

Salt (lots)

11 peppercorns

6 cloves garlic peeled

2 large leeks or 4 small, cleaned, trimmed and thickly sliced (18oz/510gr)

2 onions, peeled

4 carrots, scraped and cut into chunks

3 celery stalks, cut into finger lengths

1 small turnip, sliced

3 parsnips, scraped and sliced

1. Lay a large piece of cheesecloth onto a work surface and put the chicken breast-side down onto it. Gather up the edges and tie them with the kitchen string. Put the chicken into the pot, breast-side up and pour over chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Skim off the foam that rises until no more forms, about half an hour.
2. While chicken boils, assemble 1 bay leaf, large sprig thyme, sprig tarragon, lots of salt, 11 peppercorns, prepare garlic and leeks, and set aside. Prepare rest of vegetables and keep aside until next step. NOTE, don't cut the veg too big - they won't cook quickly enough.
3. When chicken has boiled for 30 mins, add the bay leaf, thyme, tarragon, salt, peppercorns, along with the garlic and leeks. Turn the chicken, breast side down. Cover, and simmer very gently about 20 minutes more. Add the remaining vegetables, turn the chicken breast side up, and continue cooking until the juices in the chicken run clear and the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes longer. When removing from cheese cloth, be careful; the chicken will be so tender it pulls apart easily. Serve pieces of chicken and vegetables with some broth pooled around.