We scored a bunch of root vegetables and other winter fodder on a trip to the upper Connecticut River Valley, so naturally we had to cook them. As is the usual case with explorers, we made forward progress, but made a few errors along the way (thankfully none of them were fatal!)
Here's what we had to work with (I love a challenge!):
- Two kinds of baking pumpkin: Sugar Pumpkin and the new (to us) Long Pie Pumpkin.
- Three kinds of turnips, including the new-to-us and highly touted Vermont favorite "Gilfeather" and one masked mystery contestant.
- 1 Blue Hubbard Squash earnestly seeking employment.
- an onion, some Dutch Gold shallots, some Northern Spy apples, and some meats that didn't fit any conceivable roots menu.
So here's the conundrum of cooking Strictly in the Interest of Science: the goal is to be informative, not delicious. When working with something as prosaic as these winter vegetables, a compelling menu was a challenge indeed!
Fortunately Lorna came through in the clutch with a package of chicken breasts and some raspberries (more on those later).
I peeled and cut the big knobby Gilfeather Turnip into batons, and steamed them. I cut the mystery long green turnip-radish into dics and steamed it with the Gilfeather when it was about half done.