A turnip is a fleshy, white, bulbous root vegetable with a purple top that grows easily around the world and is eaten by man and beast alike.
Turnips are best consumed young and sweet, as like most of us they become bitter and coarse with age. Keep them in a cool place until you're ready to boil, steam, mash, glaze or purée them. Turnips can also be eaten raw.
European in origin, turnips are used frequently in Britain and France in stews and soups, including the traditional French pot-au-feu. Because they can absorb fat easily, they are often served with fatty meats such as duck.
Turnip greens are a soul food staple that may be boiled, sautéed, steamed or stir-fried.
When you want a dish to have quintessential garlic flavor that permeates each bite, mince it. You can mince with a knife, or a garlic press.
Either way, you need to free the individual cloves. To do that, press down on the head with the heel of your palm. Apply firm, even pressure so the cloves don't fly all over the place.
To peel an individual clove, cut of the hard stem end where the clove attached to the bulb. Either stop the cut just short of the skin on the other side and peel the skin around to remove it, or make the cut all the way through and squeeze out the clove. The older the clove, the easier the skin releases.
You can also peel it by setting the side of your knife blade on the clove and pressing down until you feel the skin release, though not hard enough to pulverize it, or the skin will get mixed in with the garlic.
To mince with a knife, smash the peeled clove with the side of the knife. Then just run your knife back and forth across the smashed clove, chopping as you go until it's as fine as you like.
If you don't want individual little pieces of garlic and have a press, just put the whole peeled clove (or cloves, if you can fit them) in the press and squeeze. Use your knife to trim away any clinging garlic.
Look for smaller turnips with unblemished skin that are firm to the touch and heavy for their size. (Larger turnips tend to be woody and rough-tasting.)
If you can, buy turnips that still have their bright green tops and use them in the same way you use mustard greens.
Spring turnips are more delicate than their robust winter counterparts, and should not be left to languish in the vegetable bin.
A Macomber turnip is a local legend in Massachusetts.
According to an honorary plaque on Main Road in Westport, Massachusetts, Aiden and Elihu Macomber returned from the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876 with a prized turnip seed in their pockets, which they planted in the fertile fields of their home town. The fruit of these seeds produced Pure Bristol White turnips that were descended from Swedish and Russian rutabagas and soon became famous from Boston to Providence.
To this day, the turnip remains a symbol of local pride.
Whenever you're planning to cook a big batch of greens (collards, mustards, kale, etc.), dedicate a couple of clean kitchen towels for their prep.
First, fill a large bowl with cold water and submerge the greens. Swish them around in the water, lift them out and repeat with another bowl of clean water. Then spread 2 large kitchen towels onto the counter, overlapping end to end. Lift the greens out of the water and shake them to remove some of the excess water. Then line the greens up on top of the kitchen towels and roll them up.
If you're not ready to cook them, just put the big cylinder of greens into the refrigerator — the moist towels keep them fresh.
Whether it's visible or not, vegetables usually have dirt, dust and other residue on them. Here's an easy and thorough way to wash all kinds of leafy greens:
Grab a bowl large enough to easily hold the greens and fill it with lukewarm water. Submerge the greens in the water and shake them back and forth to dislodge or dissolve the dirt. Then just lift the greens out of the water so the dirt stays behind. Pour out the water and repeat with clean water until the water stays clear when you pull out the greens.
