Far Better than Anticipated {Turnip Pancakes}

I had no intention of posting about this particular dish. I didn't take any blog-worthy photos. But, just so you don't get the wrong impression, and think that every night is a big drawn out pasta-making, or dumpling-making kitchen equivalent to a Busby Berkeley musical number (imagine whisks and spatulas instead of coins.), there are times when I have some of our less favorite ingredients to use.  Take, for instance, last night - I had been wanting to clean out the fridge and happened upon a big bag of root vegetables (turnips, kohlrabi, and potatoes) stored up from a few past CSA deliveries. God love the root vegetable as it is nearly impossible for them to go bad even when you want them to  accidentally forget them in the bottom of the vegetable drawer.

Usually, turnips and kohlrabi are strictly cold weather offerings. I will roast them in the oven and serve them along side of a pork tenderloin or such. Warm, heavyish, decidedly not Summer. I needed to find something that was a bit more fitting to the current season. Somewhere in the depths of my foggiest memories, I recalled turnip cakes being on the dim sum carts at T&S (a fabulous albeit quite dive-y Chinese restaurant here in Austin). I searched the internets for a recipe, but all of them required ingredients that would mean a trip to the Asian grocery store, and I had no intentions of that type of effort for these turnips, etc.

Instead, why not make a potato pancake (latke or kartoffelpuffer or rosti depending upon your cultural persuasion)? So , this is what I did.

Turnip Pancakes

• 1 lb turnips (can combine turnips and kohlrabi with good results)
• 1/2 lb potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C flour
• 3 Tbsp green onions, minced.
• 1/4 C peanut oil (my new go-to pan frying oil - high smoke point= no black sludge at the end of your frying)

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Peel and cube all of the root vegetables. Add to boiling water and cook for about 15 minutes (until the vegetables are tender when pierced with a fork.)
2. Drain water from the pot and return vegetables to the pot. Mash with a fork or a potato masher. Add green onions and mix well. Stir in beaten eggs, flour and salt and pepper to taste. (At this point, my mixture looked very similar to a very moist and very mashed potato salad.)
3. In a large, heavy skillet, heat 1/4 cup oil over medium high heat. Using a 1/4 cup measure,  scoop the mixture into the pan and flatten a bit with the back of the cup, forming a flattened pancake. Cook about 4 minutes per side and remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper and serve.

These were far better than I anticipated. I'm always a bit tentative in offering some of these more unusual dishes to El Syd, but he loved these and commented that they reminded him of crab cakes - not so much in flavor (the turnip flavor is cut by the potato and kohlrabi, so it isn't aggressive at all) but in texture. A vegetarian "crab"cake is the way he described it. Just as with traditional potato pancakes, we served these with a dollop of sour cream and they were really quite good. We have found our new "go-to"preparation for turnips!

Try them out and let me know what you think.

Happy Cooking!

sld

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