Kohlrabi & Rosemary

Vote for your favorite at the bottom of this post

Foodie Fights presents Battle Kohlrabi & Rosemary

Decision time. Do I go for the over the top use of the two ingredients? Kohlrabi steaks grilled over a fire made of rosemary branches served on a turnip rosemary ciabatta bread slathered with rosemary aiolli and topped with a German turnip tapenade and rosemary ice cream? Sounds good, affordable, not too labor intensive. Maybe I can flash my rural roots and make a deer camp specialty, turnip fries. Not original but tasty. No. I think I will follow rule #1. Make something I would want to eat.

Kohlrabi has a slightly bitter flavor and smooth texture, the greens are best when braised. Rosemary has a bright dominant, piney flavor. Neither one is a real leader and taste bud fatigue can set in pretty early. I will take advantage of the smooth texture of the kohlrabi and bring in the front of the mouth acidity with the greens. The rosemary and lemon should add another layer of complexity

The test of a dish is not if my family and friends like it, they love me and know I cry if they say something mean. A better test is to see if you can sell it to strangers in exchange for their hard earned cash. Would I order this if I saw it on a menu?

After a two hour mountain bike ride pondering the union of "German turnips" and rosemary this is what I came up with. A nice appetizer course or light lunch. A balance of textures with the crispy rice and smooth kohlrabi with bright citrus and rosemary notes.

You can make this dish in stages over a few days. Warning-- this is not a recipe for fans of 30 minutes meals.

Arborio & Rosemary Crusted Kohlrabi Cakes

Medallions of kohlrabi and Vermont Ayr cheese wrapped in arborio rice seasoned with rosemary and lemon zest. Pan fried nice and crispy. A room temperature salad of heirloom tomatoes, toasted garlic slices,smoky bacon & braised turnip greens in a champagne vinegar dressing complements the turnip cakes. Finish the dish with a butter sauce accented with a brunoise of steamed kohlrabi and a touch of red jalapeno pepper.

Sounds like a lot of work. Let' see if it is.

Step 1. Boil two whole kohlrabi, reserve leaves, until tender, use a skewer to test for doneness, it should pass thru with little resistance. Chill and peel. Slice 1/4 inch thick and using a 2" diameter cutter punch into rounds. You need two rounds per serving. Save the rest of the turnip for small diced turnips in the butter sauce. Waste not want not

Step 2. Wash kohlrabi leaves and simmer in salted water with 1/2 thinly slice onion until tender, about 10 minutes. Rinse under cold water and squeeze out all excess water. Squeeze it like you mean it.

Step 3. Cook some short grained rice, I used arborio. Sweat a shallot, add 1 cup rice, 2 cups liquid and a splash of white wine. Simmer with a lid on until done. Aga owners can throw it in the Baking Oven for 20 minutes. Lay the rice out on a sheet pan to cool. Add 1 clove of crushed garlic, zest of 1 lemon and 3 nice stalks of fresh rosemary finely chopped. Don't forget to season your food as you go.

Step 4. Make the vinaigrette. Heat 3 Tablespoons of grapeseed or light olive oil with 3 cracked peppercorns, 1 big clove of garlic thinly sliced until the garlic is lightly toasted and aromatic. Immediately remove from the heat, add juice of a wedge of lemon, 1 Tablespoon champagne vinegar, salt and a big pinch of fresh chopped parsley. ( it would be easy to add rosemary here but you lose the balance in the dish)

Step 5. Make some crispy bacon lardons (slice into strips about 1 inch by 1/4 inch) and slowly cook turning often for even crisping.

Step 6. Slice a little cheese, about 1/2 ounce per person and punch out with the 2" cutter. I used an alpine style cheese from a local dairy called Vermont Ayr. You can sub out a good local cheese from your neck of the woods or a high quality Swiss.

Step 7. Cut up an heirloom tomato into chunks

Step 8. Make butter sauce, reduce 1/2 cup white wine and juice from a wedge of lemon with a diced shallot, very small dice of 1/2 of a red jalapeno and brunoise (small dice) of reserved kohlrabi. When wine reduction is au sec (almost dry) add a touch of cream and remove from heat, stir in 1/2 stick of cold unsalted butter, season and leave somewhere warm

Assemble Kohlrabi Cakes

Season your turnip slices, put a thin layer of cheese between two turnip slices, skewer with two toothpicks

On a cutting board flatten out two small handfuls of rice into a thin circle, really press them out but no holes. Thin to win baby.

Dredge your turnip slices in flour, brush with egg wash using the toothpicks as handles. Place in center of one disc of rice, place other disc of rice on top. It's OK if it falls apart a little just press back together. Using a 2 1/2" cutter punch out around the disc. Remove excess rice. Sprinkle panko breadcrumbs on both sides of the turnip cake. Pan fry over moderate heat, nice and crispy on both sides. Hold somewhere warm.

room temp salad of braised kohlrabi greens, heirloom tomatoes from Gaylord Farm

Assemble Salad

In a steel bowl toss the braised greens with the tomato, some of the bacon, and dressing to your taste. Be sure to get the toasted sliced garlic in there. Add some chopped parsley. Again, season your food.

Let's Plate It Up

Place one cake down near the center, mound a small amount of salad in center of plate, lean other cake against the salad. Drizzle butter sauce around the plate and top salad with some reserved bacon.

Holy cow that's a mouthful, thanks for reading all the way to the bottom. G

Bonus picture, no extra charge!

Scallops & Rhubarb

springtime in Vermont, rhubarb, maple syrup & chives

Here is my entry in Battle Rhubarb & Coriander Seed by Foodie Fights. This is more of technique than a step by step recipe. It looks long but be brave and read the whole post. Here is the link to the voting site. Be fair and view all the entries before you decide.

Rhubarb is a pretty tart pill to swallow. Smells better than it tastes. Rhubarb was first cultivated by the Sugarcane Growers Assoc as a way to get us New Englanders to use more sugar and less maple syrup. It's a fact that I just made up. I didn't take the bait and managed to make a rhubarb dish with no sugar, a little maple syrup but no sugar. I also took exception to the "sear scallops in hot pan" method. Lets see what I did.

The dish, the whole dish and nothing but the dish

Pan roasted sea scallops with coriander crust and a rhubarb glaze. Served a rhubarb, mango & jicama salad.

Let's break it down now

First thing I did was take about 8 nice stalks of rhubarb, wash and trim the ends then rough cut and put on a small sheet pan and into the freezer. After they were frozen, about 3 hours, I pulled the pan out and let them defrost on the pan. By freezing and thawing the fruit the cell walls collapse and are not capable of holding their liquid. Then I squeezed all the liquid out of the stringy defrosted rhubarb. Strain it, measure it and reduce by 2/3. I took three cups of rhubarb juice and reduced down to 1 cup. I added 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup and 7 to 10 shakes of fish sauce. Taste it, tart, a little sweet and slightly salty. You can do this up to 3 days ahead of time

Next Comes the Salad

I made a simple salad with equal parts julienne of rhubarb, jicama, mango and red bell pepper (remember always peel raw peppers). Tossed it with lime juice, maple sugar, veg oil, cracked coriander seed and chili powder. Taste it, add some chopped chives or parsley if you have some. This can be made a day ahead, no problem.

Scallop Technique

Make sure you purchased nice dry sea scallops and are free of grit and side muscle. They should feel sticky when you touch them. I used three scallops per person as a salad/app course. Crack 2 teaspoon coriander seed and 1 teaspoon black peppercorns and mix together. Dry the dry sea scallops with a paper towel and season the scallops with a little sea salt. Press the coriander mixture lightly onto both sides of the scallop. Heat a large sauté pan over medium low heat for 3 minutes. Add a tablespoon of veg oil, swirl around and dump out any excess oil. Add the scallops to the pan. They should sizzle slighty, better too low than too high a heat. Don't move them. Let them cook slowly for 60 to 90 seconds depending on how big. Flip the scallops and add 1 Tablespoon of unsalted butter for each order you are cooking. Then add 1 ounce of rhubarb reduction to the pan. Baste the scallops every 10 seconds or so with the juice and butter blend while they are cooking. The scallops will be moist, tender and not have the dreaded bullseye (over cooked on the outside with a raw center) you get from searing them to quickly on high heat. They will be cooked in about 2 minutes. Put the scallops on a warm plate while you add a drop of good white wine and whisk the sauce together. You only need 1 ounce of sauce per person. Taste and adjust. Need more salt? more butter? remember to envision the whole dish when you are tasting only one component of the plate.

basting means no bulls eye on those scallops

Put It All Together

This is easy. It Looks like a lot but with some planning and preparation it's doable by most home cooks. Here it is step by step.

• Preheat your pan and the small resting plate. Put the sea scallops, butter, oil, rhubarb juice and wine near the stove top.

• Layout your plates and put the rhubarb salad on the bottom 2/3 of the plate

• Cook the scallops and make the sauce

• Place the scallops on the salad, flare a little sauce and your viola! Time to eat. Check out the butter. This cultured butter is like crack. Don't try it and think you'll go back to regular old butter.

Here's what I used to make 4 orders

12 sea scallops

sea salt

1/2 cup of my rhubarb juice reduction concoction

4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

2 teaspoons coriander seeds & 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns

1/2 mango, 1/4 of a jicama, 2 small rhubarb stalks and 1/2 red pepper for the salad

A handful of baby greens and some fresh chives

Thanks for reading to the bottom, enjoy! Gerry

hand squeezed rhubarb juice, you don't see that everyday. Stay tuned for my version of lemonade using rhubarb juice!