Comments on: Rutabagas, Turnips & A Braided Carrot…

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:55:26 +0000

Known here as swede in Scotland as neeps served with mashed potato with haggis only called rutabaga when they don’t want us to know what we are eating ie in pickles great reading all this respect from England .

By: Footloose

Footloose — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:28:42 +0000

Labanos, lobak or daikon is what I have always known as radish but turnips, although unavoidable here (in Toronto) specially in winter and as a yearned for dimsum treat, I have never really tried cooking until very recently. Now singkamas or jicama is another matter. When harvested young, they were braided into bunches and sold as grade school recess treats and when allowed to mature until crunchy hard, they are julienned and included in fresh lumpia filling. While looking it up, I found this Wiki gem of an entry, the largest jicama on record was dug up in the Philippines just in 2010 and weighed about 23 kilos. Wow, that must have been some great-grandpa of all singkamas, magulang na magayot pa.

By: Mila

Mila — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:39:18 +0000

Hmmm… kimchi?
Over here, they toss in chunks of turnips into a soup with pork and corn. It’s sort of their form of nilaga, everybody makes it. And true to Chinese form, they say it’s healthy for some body organ/function. I like the soup after eating tongue searing spicy food, the turnips serve to cool down the tongue and mouth.
I’d vote for a turnip cake myself, it’s my dimsum guilty pleasure.

By: Ken_L

Ken_L — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:00:25 +0000

There are varieties of turnip that would do quite well in the cooler areas but swedes, alas, really need a bit of frost as they approach maturity to bring out the flavour. So I can’t see them being a viable cash crop here.

By: EJ

EJ — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:31:40 +0000

Thanks very much for reminding me, Bettyq. I forgot about that one. The galleon trade really introduced us to a lot of Central and South American produce.

By: myra_p

myra_p — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:27:46 +0000

Absolutely make a stew and pack it with your favorite root vegetables. Roasted turnip is really good too.

By: millet

millet — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:31:53 +0000

bettyq, radish cake is one of my must-orders in dimsum teashops. would you mind sharng a recipe for it?

footloose, you’re some wordsmith! i look forward to your comments all the time.

and yes, MM, i grew up believing singkamas was turnip, until I everybody started calling it jicama. so is there a difference in taste, MM? because i certainly can’t imagine eating singkamas with butter and salt!

i make a spicy radish pickle that is great with any fried food, except that everytime i open the jar, everyone wonders who passed gas. i always have to explain, “it’s the radish, folks!”

By: PITS, MANILA

PITS, MANILA — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:04:57 +0000

atchara? like all-radish atchara? minus the foul scent, of course.

By: Gej

Gej — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:50:54 +0000

Great! So many ideas on what to do with rutabagas and turnips! Kasseopeia, the thin sliced turnip poached in butter sounds good (reminds me of radish in bread with lots of butter that MM mentioned recently). Did you also try it without the salmon?

How about kohlrabi?

MM, how did you finally cook your produce?

The first quarter of the year is really the best time to experiment with produce not usually grown in the Philippines, because of the cool weather.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:21:27 +0000

ami, hahaha, yes, I thought the same… very upstairs, downstairs kind of liaison… :)