Sunday, May 09, 2010

Sundays with Marlena Spieler-Turnip ON! Two Recipes.

Torshi is a Jewish Persian Pickled Condiment made with young turnips and beets.
This turnip and sour cream Ashkenazi salad is a perfect choice to accompany a dairy meal. I added the Greek Yogurt...I couldn't help myself. I used the sauce over cold quinoa pasta...a later post!
I also used some preserved lemons in the salad...I knew Marlena would approve!

It would be great with flatbread...but this garlic/parm artisan bread was perfect with it.


Torshi

Ingredients: for four jars, 12 oz each

2 and 1/4 lbs of turnips (smallish ones)
3 raw beets (small to med)
2-3 TBS kosher salt
6 cups of water
juice of 1 lemon

Wash the turnips and beets. Do NOT peel them. Cut off the "hairy" end though. :)
Cut into 1/4 " slices. Put salt and water into a bowl. Stir and leave until salt is dissolved.

Sprinkle the beets with lemon juice and place the slices at the bottom of the sterilized jars. Top with the turnip slices..pack them tightly into each jar. Pour the salt water into each jar until it tops the beets and turnips. Seal the jars and put into a cool place for at least 7 days before serving. Great in a sandwich...or just to crunch on! I cannot wait until they are ready!

Turnip Salad in Sour Cream and Greek-style Yogurt

Ingredients: Serves four

2-4 smaller turnips (young ones) clean them with a brush
1/4 to 1/2 red onion...grated or finely chopped
2-3 drops of white wine vinegar
(I finely chopped 1 quarter of a preserved meyer lemon)
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsley or paprika for garnish (I used the green parts of scallions)

Thinly slice on or two of the turnips..and then grate the rest on med hole of the grater. Place in a bowl.

Add the onion, vinegar, salt and pepper and toss. Stir in the sour cream (and yogurt and preserved lemons..or even grate some lemon into the bowl)

Chill and serve with a garnish of parsley or some other green herb, etc. Dill?

This is killer! A killer salad. I put it in some pita bread and it was so good...I even thought of all kinds of things that this would go with..or just by itself. A real summer kind of salad! Later I added some cukes and dill...and put it over cold pasta with shrimp I poached in water with lemon and saffron. Later on that!

So, we continue to cook thru Jewish Cooking and my compadres are almost done! Please be sure to check out Just the Two of Us and Sacramento Spice for their offerings this week. Oh..and Happy Mother's Day!!

6 comments:

marlena spieler said...

i made jars of preserved lemons and turnips before i got on plane yesterday....great minds thinking alike! so while i'm here in Oz, my turnips and lemons are busy preserving and getting puckerily delicious!

xoxo m

Eileen and Karen said...

sounds good!

Unknown said...

Marlena...I know! Ha!

Eileen..it is really good. Reminds me that summer is on the way!

Taradharma said...

I have yet to make the preserved lemons, and I have a boat load of meyers just screaming to be picked!

The turnip salad looks wonderful, and I will try it and let you know what I think.

We have a large jar of pickled beets and carrots that a friend made....time to break that open (not literally)!

shankari said...

The colors look so vibrant & beautiful Mel! I can almost feel the crunch of the turnips!

Carolyn Jung said...

This would be a handy-dandy staple to have on hand, especially for summer salads. Yum!