Caramelized turnips & cranberry sauce

I am inundated with CSA produce again, mostly root vegetables and winter squash. Thus, I have started digging myself out this week, beginning with some turnips and some cranberries. (Did not serve them together, I merely wanted to use the cranberries before they went bad.)

Caramelized turnips

I have turnips. A lot of turnips. A boatload of turnips. And honestly, they are a little bitter for my taste, so aside from putting them in a big stew and boiling them to mush, what can I do with them? Well, I did a little Googling today and found this recipe for caramelized turnips.

Basically you peel the turnips and dice them, and they become surprisingly white and delicate-looking. You put them in a saucepan with some water over medium heat, which basically steams them and starts browning the edges a little bit when the water is gone. Add butter and sugar until the turnip pieces look soft, glistening, and golden brown.


By the time they were done cooking, the three cups of turnips that I initially had diced reduced in size a surprising amount. I served them with a spinach and radicchio salad with Gorgonzola cheese. (Lettuces are also CSA, I'm assuming from a hot house.)


The turnips were still bitter, but they were warm and sweet, too. I think they would go very nicely as a side dish with some ham, chicken, or duck.

Cranberry sauce

I have had this huge bag of cranberries for weeks, not really knowing what to do with it, so I decided to make some cranberry sauce. This was one of the funnest things I have made in a while.

For four cups of berries, you take 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and simmer until sugar is totally dissolved. Then add the berries. You should very soon begin to hear some popping noises; this is the sound of the cranberries literally exploding in the simple syrup. Awesome.

After a while, you get this saucy red mixture:


You can add different things to make it more flavorful or to cut the tartness of the berries: cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon peel, blueberries, etc. I added about a half cup of frozen blackberries from the last of my summer stash. I realize this will probably only make it more tart, but I tasted a bit and it was really good.

I basically plan to make bread this week and buy a ton of turkey lunch meat, then make turkey & cranberry sandwiches. (Maybe I should pick up some stuffing, too.) Fantastic.