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HAPPY NEW YEAR .  Welcome 2010!

This time of year the days are growing longer but fresh local crops are a long way off.  We are in the root veggie season!   White turnips, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, Sunchokes, beets, celeriac and rutabaga.  The challenge is to eat them up in as many different, delicious ways as possible.

Last year I experimented with some great new dishes with beets – borscht, roasted beets, and cooked or raw beets on salads!  Greens topped with roasted beets, feta and  a raspberry vinaigrette!  Yum!

This year my first challenge is rutabaga!  Some people like their ‘big turnips’ straight up – boil, mash with a little butter, maple syrup, ginger?  I do like rutabaga raw and cut them into match stick and serve on a veggie tray with dip!  My Mom always made a soup she called Scotch Broth – a beef base and cabbage and rutabaga and barley. That was good, hearty and not to rutabaga-y.  I have made a vegetarian version.  Still rutabaga is not my favourite.  I was never a big fan of yams either but now I love them now so there is hope.  And just when I though yams would not grow on Vancouver Island and began substituting squash instead someone tells me they bought yams from a farmer at Moss Street Market who  grew them as an experiment last season!  Thanks to all those farmers that are trying with new varieties and extending the seasons!  We’ll be sure to support you by buying your unique produce!

But back to rutabaga!  Today I have made a Lentil Shepherd’s Pie with a squash rather than potato topping.  I cooked the lentils with curry spices and added 2 diced carrots and 1 cup diced rutabaga as the veggies.  I added some raisins to the veggies as they go well with anything curried.  The acorn squash as a topping is quite sweet all on its own.  I may top it off with a few chopped cashews or almonds.  I’ll let you know how it tasted tomorrow and publish the adjusted version!!

Other Lentil Shepherd’s Pie versions I had thought of were:

Lentils spiced Texmex (chili powder and cumin) with mushrooms, rutabaga and leeks. The squash topping is a natural in Mexican cuisine.

Lentils mushrooms Sunchokes in a Miso-Almond butter gravy with a Creamy Yukon Gold mashed potato topping.  Oops no rutabaga!

More about lentils next time.

And remember rutabaga is a great addition to stews!  I have asked a number of people for their stew recipes but they say they don’t really use a recipe, they just make it!  Would you have a recipe for me?

Who knew rutabagas could be a sport!

Ithaca, UNITED STATES: A sign at the 9th Annual Rutabaga Curling World Championship, 23 December 2006, at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market in Ithaca, New York. The event, held at the end of the season for the farmer’s market, has contestants rolling rutabagas towards a target. The root vegetable name is from the Swedish ‘rotabagge’ and is the result of a cross between a turnip and a cabbage. The sport of Rutabaga Curling was born on a cold December 1996 Market day, the last market day of the season.