October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, special features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food. Bon appetit!
Just before the summer season this year, we committed to joining a local CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture. We chose Pinehold Gardens, a 21-acre CSA farm in Oak Creek.
For the past 18 weeks we have received hearty vegetable shares, the contents of which shift with the changing harvesting season. Now that we're well into October, late season crops such as turnips, leeks and kale are prevalent. I'm something of a novice when it comes to cooking root vegetables, but thankfully each week's box of veggies comes with a newsletter and three or four recipes involving the included produce.
Last week we received a recipe for mashed potatoes and turnips with sautéed onions and greens, submitted by CSA member Annie Wegner. We made it, it was a success and now I'd like to share it with you during OnMilwaukee.com's Dining Month.
Ingredients:
2 lbs. Potatoes, cut into medium chunks
3/4 lb. Turnips, cut into medium chunks
1 Thyme sprig
Salt and pepper to taste
3 oz. Goat cheese and / or butter to taste
(Optional)
1 Tbsp. butter plus 2 tsp. olive oil (or all olive oil)
2 large onions, sliced 1/4 -in. thick
1 lb. Turnip greens
Directions:
Put the potatoes and turnips in a pot, cover with cold water and add the thyme and 2 tsp. salt. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered until soft, 20-25 mins. Drain, then mash, adding cooking water of needed to thin the vegetables and add the cheese and / or butter. Taste for salt and season with pepper. Keep warm until ready to serve.
Melt the butter with the oil in a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet. Add the onions and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until golden or tender, 12-15 mins. Season with salt and pepper and turn off heat.
Steam turnip greens until tender. Pat dry and add to pan with onions. To serve, mound the potato / turnips mash on a platter and smother it with the onions and greens.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
