Sheeps Brains or Turnips?!

Last year during the time that Masterchef was on TV, Daniel decided to buy me once a week a mystery box item that I had to cook with. That was the first time I cooked with whole uncleaned squid and daikon.

After a few weeks Daniel stopped buying me a weekly surprise however he recently started this up again. While in Woolworths one evening he toyed with the idea of buying me a sheeps brain to cook with. OMG… one thing I don’t like to eat is offal, or spare parts as I like to call them. The only exception is chicken livers as you can’t knock back a good pate! But sheeps brains? Cooking this would be the worst. I’m sure he was inspired by the TV show we’re watching call iZombie where the main character eats human brains.  All I can say is I’m rather glad I convinced him otherwise… I definitely dodged that bullet! So Daniel instead browsed the vegetables available there in the supermarket and settled on buying me a couple turnips instead.

In search of a suitable recipe

My knowledge on turnips is sketchy.  All I know is that they were a favourite root vegetable in days past. I’ve never eaten a turnip before. Nor have I cooked with it before – of course, that was what Daniel intended… for me to broaden my gastronomic experience. So I resorted to trusty Google to help me out. Daniel wanted me to make turnip the hero of a meal… that meant adding it to a casserole or as one of many different roast vegetables was out of the question. So I decided to really venture to something unusual and used it to make a risotto… with miso! Yes, combine both Italian and Japanese flavours together – you seriously can’t get more worlds apart than that. You know what… the results were surprising, really surprising. It was actually really delicious. Absolutely everyone loved this turnip & miso risotto. Our new vegetarian workawayer gave it two thumbs up. My mother-in-law was super sceptical about the use of egg yolk in the risotto but this is what gave the meal the creaminess. It worked. I found this recipe on Food52 and adapted it to my tastes.

Turnip & Miso Risotto

This recipe combines old with new, and Italian with Japanese. It's a wacky to bring all these together but it does work! Have this risotto as a side with lamb or eat it as the main meal. If you find yourself with a turnip, give this recipe a go!

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 35 minutes mins

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

 

• 1 large onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 turnips, peeled and diced
• 1.25 cups arborio rice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2.5 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 teaspoons rosemary, chopped
• 1 tablespoon miso paste, without seaweed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt, optional
• black pepper, freshly ground

Instructions

 

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add onion and cook until opaque. Add the garlic and cook for a minute.
• Add the arborio rice and stir. Allow it to toast for 2 minutes.
• Add the wine and let it reduce by half.
• Add the diced turnip and the chicken broth to the rice. Stir and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. Stir the mixture well every 5 minutes.
• When the rice is cooked to al dente and the turnip is tender, stir in the parmesan, miso, egg yolk, and rosemary. Season with salt (if you need to) and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.Serve immediately with extra parmesan if desired.

Notes

Add up to 1 tablespoon more miso for a more intense flavour. I decided for my first effort with this dish to go a little easy. Alternatively, leave the miso out altogether if you're a bit scared of adding in this flavour. It would still work well albeit a safer option!