[23] Turnips in Creamy Mustard Sauce

Cover of How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

I just posted about a meal that was made basically based on what was in the fridge, where the main dish was pork chops. This was the major side dish. This recipe is actually a variant on a recipe in How to Cook Everything; the mustard sauce is not normally creamy. However, I had cream in the fridge that didn’t have any other recipe home and was going to go bad, so creamy mustard sauce it was.

Very good choice, I’d say. But maybe that’s just because I didn’t want the cream to go bad. 😉

h2. Ingredients

2 tbsp butter or extra virgin olive oil
1.5 lbs turnips, cut into chunks about the size of radishes (He says really most root veggies will work here.)

Salt & freshly ground pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 c cream

2 tbsp Dijon mustard; more if you want it. (We used a whole-grain mustard mix.)

Chopped fresh parsley for garnish (Again, I don’t tend to do this, as I’m not a parsley fan.)

h2. Instructions

Heat the butter over medium heat in a sauce pan that is large enough to hold all the veggie chunks in one layer. Add said chunks and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggie chunks start to brown (~10 minutes).

At that point, add the sugar and cream (only enough to cover – so it might be less than the full cup). Cover, and bring to a gentle bubble (don’t boil vigorously) until the cream has mostly evaporated and the chunks are tender. This will be around 30 minutes. The liquid will be “syrupy” when done. At this point, reduce the heat a bit and then stir in the mustard until it’s dissolved in the sauce. Taste, add salt, pepper or mustard as needed, then garnish and serve hot or warm.

h2. Cooking and Consumption Notes

h3. Cooking

This was actually dead easy, but it took some patience. I suspect that the turnips took a little longer to cook than they might in a different situation, because the cream was kept below a boil. That also required a good deal of monitoring (and thus letting heat out when uncovered), but it wasn’t terribly challenging.

Note, though, that when the finished liquid is described as “syrupy” this is no joke. That cream was reduced to a sticky, delicious mess. Further note that if you use whole mustard seed or whole-grain mustard (as we did), it’s going to be a lot harder to tell when your mustard has dissolved in the sauce. However, the added crunchy kick is worth it.

h3. Consumption

I thought these were quite tasty, and I’m actually not mustard’s biggest fan. Bill and Jessie were not as thrilled with it, though they both enjoyed it. I know they wouldn’t turn their noses up at it if it came back around.

The cream turned this lovely golden brown color, and the stickiness was actually quite fun. Of course, I like messy food.

All in all, I’d recommend this as a nice side dish. Not spectacular, but definitely tasty.

Actually, now that I say that, I wonder when our flop is going to arrive. It hasn’t yet happened, which strikes me as odd. But I’m so pleased that’s the case.