Rape caramellate - turnip 'tzimmes'

Today I bought turnips and I meant to add them to a lamb stew. But when I peeled them I noticed that they were so young and juicy that I decided to prepare them separately according to an Italian recipe called rape caramellate.


Serves 6

1 kg turnips, peeled and chopped or sliced
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
1 clove
2 tbsp sugar

Fry turnips in butter on medium heat for a few min. Add a little water, the clove and salt & pepper. Cover the pan, lower the heat and let this simmer until the turnips are done.
Add sugar when most of the liquid has gone en stir for 2 min. until the sugar has caramelized. Serve immediately.

I had this with a lamb stew (basic recipe with onion, carrots and courgettes) and steamed potatoes. For dessert, strawberries again, this time with a mixture of sour cream and cane sugar, hmm.

Stuffed courgettes

After a busy week and week-end, today I finally had time to cook again and I got inspired in the supermarket. I bought lots of vegetables:


Stuffed courgettes - zucchine ripiene

This is how I usually stuff courgettes, based on an Italian recipe.

Serves 2

2 courgettes
180 g ground meat (e.g. pork or beef)
chopped parsley
grated parmesan
bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
pepper & salt

Boil the courgettes for 3-4 min.
Slice them in half and take out the flesh with a spoon. Cut half of the flesh finely and put the remainder away for another use.
Mix the meat with the zucchini flesh and the other ingredients.
Fill the courgette halves with this mixture and put them in a dish, greased with olive oil.
Put in the oven at 180°C until the meat is cooked (around 40 min.).

Notes

If you use round courgettes, let them boil for a bit longer. They also need to bake longer than the long ones.
Tonight I left out the parmesan and I added a little bacon, but I prefer it without bacon.
If you make bigger quantities, don't use more than 1 or 2 eggs.


I had the stuffed courgettes with a carrot, turnip and yellow pepper tzimmes (see Fennel tzimmes on previous post, with cumin seeds and a little sugar) and steamed potatoes coated in olive oil.

Fennel, sweet potato and oats

Today I bought sweet potato and fennel in a Turkish shop. These are two vegetables which I really love, just like pumpkin. I made a fennel tzimmes, inspired by Claudia Roden's carrot tzimmes, and a sweet potato mash, based on Claudia Roden's ajlouk de potiron.
I was wondering what to have with this and then I remembered one of my grandfather's recipes with oat, so I decided to try that. My grandfather loved to cook, especially desserts, and he wrote up his recipes in a notebook. After his death, my grandmother gave me his notebook and I've tried out many of his delicious recipes.

This is what my dinner looked like:


Fennel tzimmes

Fry the fennel in butter or oil for a few min. on medium heat. Keep stirring. Add boiling water until the fennel is half covered. Add salt, pepper and fennel seeds. Let it boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for 30 min. At the end, you can leave the lid off to let the liquid evaporate.

Sweet potato mash (ajlouk)

Peel and chop the sweet potato. Steam it for about 10 min. until it's soft.
Mash it with a fork.
Then season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, chilli paste, cumin seeds, chopped parsley or coriander. You can also add a little crushed garlic and some ground coriander.
You can use all or just a few of these seasonings in the quantities you like.
Claudia Roden has a recipe with pumpkin and another one with courgette. You can use any vegetable that mashes easily.
Serve on toast or just as a side dish.

Labelga made me discover the ajlouk recipe, on a beautiful September evening. We made three different ajlouks: from carrots, sweet potato and courgette. We had them on her terrace outside. She is also a big Claudia Roden's adept. A long time ago I gave her 'The book of Jewish food' as a birthday present and she was very enthusiastic about it. I only got it for myself a few years later.

Oat cake

Serves 1-2

Rinse 2 tbsp of oatmeal in water, then add 1 egg and a pinch of salt and mix with a fork.
Heat a little butter in a small pan and pour the mixture in the pan. Fry on low heat until golden brown on one side, then turn over and fry the other side.


Today I also went to an Arabian shop and bought lots of delicious pastries.