Know Your Produce

White ( or French ) Turnips

 From last Tuesday's Mendon farmers market, and Friday's supper - just now getting around to it.
My current favorite vegetable. I call them French turnips, no idea why, Im guessing I saw Julia or someone on television once call them this - but for the folks that grew them and most of the world they are just white turnips. If you hate turnips - some distant memory of a brown grey musky tasting mush on a plate - this is the exact opposite. Delicate and earthy ( in a good way ) not at all the murky mashed mangle of flavors that you might think you remember.

Very small, some of these the not much larger than a dime, up to small egg sized. The good folks over at Buzz's Garden sell super clean produce - that photo is right from the market, no washing at all, not even any real grit on the greens. I just cleaned them like you would a mushroom, light " scrubbing " with damp paper towel .

• Country Fried Steak and Gravy
• White Rice
• Turnips and Greens w Bacon
• Tomatoes

If you can find these little gems of late summer buy them!

Chop off the greens, wash and save - these were so new and fresh that most of the stem was edible, but if they are older and bigger , you may have to de- stem the greens. Trim up the root itself, off with the little tail and the top . Half the larger ones, leaving the smaller ones whole - drop in boiling salted water. Larger halves first, then the smaller ones - only blanch a few min - it is a very tender root.

Drain, let cool, and then brown up in a little butter . I added a little bacon, just because I cooked the greens were done vegetarian. Serve on top of the sauteed* greens.

* Other than New Years Day collards, I do not boil the heck out of my greens, which we eat often. There is no real need to with summer greens - any really, including turnip greens. You can if that is the dish you are going for, but just a flash fry of almost any with some mirepoix, adding meat fat if you choose, is just fine...