Friday 9 November 2007

Recipe: Turnip Gratin


Not a particularly lyrical-sounding dish - but in fact it has a very good flavour, and works well as an alternative to a Gratin Dauphinois, with the added dietary benefit that it is much lower in carbohydrates than the classic potato dish. In its use of cream, this cooking method is a first cousin to Michel Guerard's Dauphinois, but is actually even simpler since it doesn't par-cook the vegetable in cream before finally baking the dish in the oven. The cream content here is also much less than in the Guerard version, which is clearly considered an advantage by some. This is a robust dish, and can be cooked to finish and then kept warm for quite some time, without coming to any harm.

For four.
Ingredients: 1 lb of Turnips; 2 Garlic cloves, minced; 3 fl. oz of Cream; 2 - 3 tablespoons of freshly-grated Parmesan; large pinch of Nutmeg; Salt & Pepper, to taste.

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C.

2. Peel and thinly slice the Turnips; put into a bowl, along with the minced garlic, Cream, Nutmeg and Salt & Pepper. Mix everything together, and distribute in a buttered baking dish.

3. Cover the dish with aluminium foil, and bake in the middle of the oven for an hour. At this point remove the foil, sprinkle with the Parmesan and cook, uncovered, for a further thirty minutes. By this stage, the top will be brown and crisp, and the cream will have thickened.

Serve immediately, or keep in a warming oven, lightly covered with foil, until needed.