Another two-fer! This time, KOHLRABI. Are you as excited as I am?

I know, what the hell is kohlrabi, right? Well, I had no idea either until a couple kohlrabi (kohlrabis? kohlrabini?) showed up in the first share of my winter CSA, looking like the deformed offspring of two beets that had mated after surviving nuclear winter. (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of them before I dismantled them, so you'll have to use either your imagination or Google.)

I did a little research, and it turns out that kohlrabi is used in German and Eastern European cooking and bears some similarities to cabbage and brussels sprouts. (Except it's kind of not at all like cabbage or brussels sprouts, because it's not leafy. Really, it's like a baseball-sized hunk of solid vegetable. NOW I bet you're excited.) I also found this recipe for stuffed kohlrabi that emphasizes the vegetable's German origins, and decided to riff on it.

First, I trimmed and peeled the kohlrabi, sliced a bit off the root end so they'd stand up straight, and used a spoon to scoop out the insides. (Which wasn't easy. These things are DENSE.) Judging by the size of the final product, I think my kohlrabi were on the tiny side and probably weren't especially well-suited to stuffing. But I pressed on. Maybe when it comes to kohlrabi, size really doesn't matter.

To make the stuffing, I essentially used a scaled-down version of the recipe linked above, considering I was working with two tiny kohlrabi and that recipe is based off eight normal-sized ones. (Even so, I still ended up with about three times as much stuffing as I needed. But we'll get back to that in a minute.) I mixed sauteed onion and garlic with raw ground pork, cooked rice, parsley, paprika, marjoram, caraway, tomato paste, egg, the kohlrabi insides, which I had chopped up, and the kohlrabi leaves, which I had chopped up and steamed in a little bit of water. I stuffed the stuffing into my two kohlrabi, put them in a little saucepan with chicken stock coming about an inch up the sides, and set it to simmer on the stove top for 30 minutes or so, until the kohlrabi were soft enough to slide a knive through easily. I plated them with a cream sauce made using the kohlrabi cooking water and the rest of the steamed kohlrabi leaves.

So, how was it, you ask? The stuffing was good, the cream sauce was good (duh), and the steamed kohlrabi leaves were good (but then again, I've never met a green I didn't like). The kohlrabi itself? Eh. Really, it just served as a fibrous container for the stuffing and gave the dish some visual interest. Taste-wise it was pretty boring. Not bad, just boring, and not something I would necessarily seek out. But that's the beauty of the CSA. Kohlrabi: now I know.


So, let's get back to all that leftover pork and kohlrabi stuffing that I knew I'd have to repurpose somehow. A few days later, in an impressive display of refrigerator leftover ingredient creativity, if I do say so myself, I combined that leftover pork and kohlrabi stuffing with a half a head of leftover cabbage and half a can of leftover whole peeled tomatoes into a quick and dirty version of stuffed cabbage.

I pulled the biggest leaves off the cabbage and blanched them in simmering water until they were pliant. Then I rolled each leaf around a few tablespoonfuls of the pork and kohlrabi stuffing and nestled them all in a little baking dish.

See, aren't they lovely? My mother-in-law would be so proud.


To keep them moist I added a cupful or so of chicken stock to the baking dish, and covered the entire thing with the tomatoes, which I had blended smooth and spiked with salt, black pepper, dill weed, sweet paprika, and a little onion powder. The whole thing went into a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, and voila. Dinner, part zwei.

A pumpkin two-fer

Doing a quick inventory of my kitchen cabinets, I discovered a can of pumpkin lurking in the back and, seeing as how the season of pumpkin-everything is upon us, I thought I should put it to use. And, over the course of two nights and two dishes, I did. The first was a sweet dish that I whipped up to take with me to an election night party. (We couldn't call it a party at the time, because of course we didn't know how it would end. In retrospect though? PAR-TAY.) The second, a savory curry with chicken and root vegetables, came about because I had half a can of pumpkin left over and needed to find a use for it. Both turned out so well that they warrant full recipe status.

Let's start with the savory, shall we?


This was terrific. Terrific, I tell ya! I can't believe I've never used canned pumpkin to make a curry before, because the texture is thick and rich and perfect. Added bonus? This is a warm, wintery dish that feels very stick-to-your-ribs, but really is quite healthy.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the sweet:


I adapted this from a recipe for something called "Baked Pumpkin Brulee French Toast," but that just seems like a needlessly over-blown description. This was just pumpkin bread pudding in cake form. The recipe is a long one time-wise, taking about three hours start to finish, although that includes a lot of down time. The end result, though, is a sliceable cake made up of a soft, dense, layers of challah bread infused with a rich pumpkin custard and topped with a sugary crust.

This earned rave reviews at the election party but, then again, most of us were pretty hopped up between the wine and oh, you know, the REDEFINING OF AMERICAN HISTORY and whatnot. And, at the end of the night, fully half of the cake still remained, leading me to think maybe it wasn't such a crowd-pleaser despite all the raves.

Then, my friend Ana, our hostess for the evening, urged me to take the leftover cake home, which was the last thing I wanted or needed. But she asked to keep a small slice for breakfast, so I happily cut her a slice. Then another friend asked for a slice to take home, and I cut one for her. Then another, and another. Then Ana said, "Forget it, I was just being polite, I want a bigger slice!" And just like that, I knew I had a winner on my hands. Which makes it 2-0 on the night, if you're counting.

***

Note: With both of these recipes, make sure you use canned pumpkin puree, which will usually be labeled "100% pumpkin" or something like that, rather than the canned pumpkin pie mix which is usually right next to the pumpkin puree on the shelf and is remarkably easy to get confused.

***

Pumpkin Curry with Chicken and Root Vegetables

Canola oil
1 tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp. garam masala (or to taste)
1 tsp. cayenne (or to taste)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 small carrots, diced
2 small potatoes, diced
15 oz. canned pumpkin puree
2 c. chicken stock

Heat canola oil with ginger and garlic. Add onion, garam masala, and cayenne and cook over medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add chicken, carrots, and potatoes, stir to combine, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add pumpkin and chicken stock, stir to combine, cover, and let simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are just soft. Add salt to taste.

I ate this with naan, yogurt, and mango pickle, but it would also be delicious over rice. Makes two J-P servings, or four Melissa servings.

***

Pumpkin Bread Pudding Cake

Adapted from this recipe in the Kansas City Star.

2 c. whole milk
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 vanilla bean
4 large eggs
4 egg yolks
3/4 c. granulated sugar
15 oz. canned pumpkin puree
1/4 c. bourbon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
Pinch salt
1 loaf challah, in 1/2 inch slices
1/4 c. brown sugar

Butter a 10-inch springform pan and wrap the outside with aluminum foil.

Combine the milk, cream, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until warm (do not boil). Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes. Remove vanilla bean, slit open, and scrape seeds into milk mixture.

In a separate mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs and egg yolks until frothy. Add granulated sugar and whisk until pale. Working slowly and in small increments, add the milk mixture to the egg mixture. Whisk in pumpkin, bourbon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.

Submerge each slice of bread into pumpkin custard and arrange slices in springform pan, overlapping the layers. Slowly pour remainder of the custard into the pan and let sit for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 degress.

Place the springform pan in a roasting pan and fill roasting pan with hot water until it reaches halfway up pan sides. Bake for 75 minutes until the center is firm but not hard. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of cake, increase temperature to 400 degrees, and cook for 15 minutes more. [If the brown suger is not melted when the cake comes out, cover with aluminum foil while it cools, and the steam will help melt the sugar.]

Cool for at least 15 minutes before using a knife to loosen cake from sides of pan and unmold. Refrigerate if not serving right away. Can be served warm, cool, or at room temperature.

Makes ten Melissa servings, or eight J-P ones.

Pasta with lamb ragu

Mmmmmm. Warm, meaty, tomatoey goodness. So lovely on a brisk fall night. (Never mind that the mercury hit 80 on the November day that I made this.)

I'm making a concerted effort to cook from my freezer and not allow things to languish in a frozen purgatory. So tonight I pulled out a shoulder roast that Nicole gave me several months ago from her Peaceful Pastures lamb. Because the roast had a fair amount of bone, and based on my previous experience with the roasts from our pig, which was also from Peaceful Pastures, I knew that this roast was destined for a slow cook.

I started by browning the roast in my dutch oven in a bit of olive oil. I pulled the meat out, and then added some chopped onion (and 1/2 of a large onion) chopped carrot (about 2 large carrots), and salt. Once the vegetables were soft, in went a good bit of red wine (maybe 1/2 cup), which I let evaporate a bit, then a tablespoon of tomato paste. Then the rest -- a cup of chicken broth, a couple bay leaves, several springs of rosemary with stems removed and coarsely chopped, fresh ground black pepper, and a large can of whole tomatoes that I had given a quick buzz in the blender.


I returned the meat to the pot and let it all simmer for a couple hours. When the meat was falling off the bones, I pulled it from the pot, shredded the meat and returned it, and discarded the bones. Then I let it go for another half-hour or so while I put on water for pasta.

I used a pasta that I picked up on one of my many Italian grocery forays. It's hard to find good Italian grocery staples in Nashville, so when I have the opportunity (such as on a jaunt through St. Louis's Little Italy earlier this year), I stock up. I'm not sure where I found this pasta or what it's called, but it was like a longer and fatter version of rigatoni and was sturdy enough to handle the chunky, meaty ragu. I served it all with a healthy grate of parmesan on top.


Perfect for the changing weather. (That is, if the weather would CHANGE ALREADY.)

A quickie

I don't eat as much seafood as I'd like, mostly because it doesn't keep well and I'm particularly picky about where I'll buy seafood. (Kroger just does not cut it.) So, whenever I'm in the vicinty of Whole Foods, I always take the opportunity to pick up some seafood to cook for dinner that night. A few days ago, I went for a few scallops, which I dusted with salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander, and seared in a little olive oil. I served the scallops with a butternut squash mash -- peeled and cubed the squash, boiled it in a little chicken stock, then mashed and added a little butter, a shake of grated pecorino romano, and some salt and pepper.

It was just like a quickie should be -- very quick, but very good!