FOOD ON THE FOOD

Leftover Cranberries?

Or cranberry sauce?  Made this tasty dish last night.  Quick and easy.

Roasted Salmon with Cranberry Shallot Relish

4 6-oz. salmon fillets
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
½ cup cranberries
¼ cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp. cardamom (optional)
1 medium shallot, chopped
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 400˚F.  Whisk oil and mustard together in small bowl.  Lightly oil roasting pan.  Place fillets in pan skin side down.  Season with salt and pepper, and brush half of oil/mustard mixture on fish.  Roast until medium rare, about 13-15 minutes.

To bowl of food processor, add cranberries, brown sugar, and cardamom.  Pulse until relishy.  Add to remaining oil/mustard mixture, along with shallots and red wine vinegar.  Season and stir well.

Brown salmon under broiler, if desired, then serve topped with relish.

Source: Adapted from Bon Appetit (original recipe here)

Time for Turnip

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at the M’s: 34-lb. turkey with gravy, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnip, squash, cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie.  The whole traditional spread, plus a terrific lobster pie brought by the Cape Cod contingent (this recipe, I'm told, is still under lock and key).

Turnip is probably the most underrated vegetable in the world.  When it’s done right, though, it can really be a standout.  Chris Douglass at Icarus makes a mean turnip gratin.  It’s great roasted.  Me, I like it mashed.

The town of Eastham on Cape Cod is famous (sort of) for its sweet, white turnip: the Eastham turnip.  They have a kitschy turnip festival every year before Thanksgiving, to which I drag my family quite unwillingly (see my article in December's Cape Cod Life, on newsstands now).  They offer turnip tasting, turnip decorating, turnip bowling.  The locals are crazy for their turnips and some incarnation of the root shows up on Thanksgiving tables in the area.  And if we’re very lucky, it will show up on ours. 

For me, it just wouldn’t quite be Thanksgiving without mashed turnip, the other white root.

 

Mashed Turnip

3 medium white turnips (Eastham or Macomber), peeled and chopped into chunks
2 Tbsp. butter
Dash fresh grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Bring large pot of water to boil.  Add salt and turnips and boil until chunks can be pierced easily with a fork (15-20 minutes).  Drain and mash with butter, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.