In some families, it’s a fact of life that it’s risky to buck tradition at Thanksgiving. Every year, it’s Grandma’s same cornbread stuffing and Cousin Isabelle’s favorite sweet potatoes.
Here, the requisite vegetable has been my Auntie Gloria’s squash puff. Then I learned that she and my Canadian family have supplanted squash with turnip.
Both are fall vegetables. Both versions are mashed. But somehow a squash puff and a turnip puff are entirely different. And since there’s no choosing between the two, now both are essential!
Turnip pairs well with roast beef and turkey both. So if your Thanksgiving menu is already cast in the irons of family custom, consider adding a Turnip Puff to the less rule-ruled Christmas meal.
Try irregularly shaped and thus extra-crispy Japanese breadcrumbs called panko (pronounced PAHN-ko) found at specialty food stores and some supermarkets.
TURNIP PUFF
Time-to-table: 75 minutes
Makes 4 cups
- 3 pounds turnip (about 6 large)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- ½ teaspoon white pepper
- Pinch nutmeg
- ½ c panko or dry bread crumbs (see ALANNA’s TIPS)
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
Peel the turnips and cut into roughly equal-size quarters. Cook in boiling salted water until soft. (Stop here and refrigerate if preparing a day before.)
Mash the turnips in a large bowl with a mixer. Add the eggs, butter, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, pepper and nutmeg and combine well. Transfer to a buttered casserole dish.
Combine the crumbs and butter and sprinkle evenly on top. (Stop here and refrigerate if preparing a few hours before.)
Bake at 375 until lightly browned on top, about 30 minutes if starting from room temperature, about 50 if starting from the refrigerator.
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© Copyright 2006 Kitchen Parade
Your Comments:
"Both are root vegetables."
I know you did't write that. It's a problem with my eyes.
11/17/2006
When I wrote this column (a year ago), when I re-proofed it (a month ago), and when your note arrived (last night), I was writing 'squash' but thinking 'sweet potato'.
Only this morning did it come to me the error you discovered. Drat.
On this planet we call Earth, squash, indeed, grows above ground while turnips and sweet potatoes, below ground.
Many thanks for the eagle-eyed editor's correction.
PS I changed 'root vegetables' to 'fall vegetables'. Drat.
11/18/2006