Thursday, May 15, 2008

Tubesday Dinner: Rutabaga

Mention Norway and Karl is automatically interested. His father is a Norwegian immigrant, after all, and Karl is very proud of his Norwegian heritage. So, when Sara suggested a traditional Norwegian dish called rotmos prepared with rutabaga, potatoes and carrots for our Tubesday Dinner, we decided to take it upon ourselves to prep that dish.

Rutabaga is a root vegetable that is a cross between turnips and cabbage. We bought two hefty ones at $0.99/lb, which is about what you would pay for loose potatoes, so it's a nice, economical change from what we are used to eating. The skin is a ruddy brown and purple, but was coated with what appeared to be wax. I'm not sure if that is applied to preserve the rutabaga and prevent bruising during transport, but the wax didn't seem to be natural. In any case, it came right off during peeling. The skin peeled easily with a regular vegetable peeler, just like a turnip.



The flesh of a raw rutabaga is white, like a turnip or potato, but interestingly, when we had roasted it, the flesh turned a lovely pale-orange color. It certainly made for beautiful presentation.

I highly recommend the rotmos dish. It's quite easy to prepare, and you could boil the veggies if you don't feel like waiting an hour for them to roast.

Rotmos

2 rutabaga, peeled and chopped into 1" cubes
3 or 4 red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into 1" cubes
2 or 3 large carrots, chopped into 1" cubes
canola oil
salt and pepper
4 TBSP butter, unsalted
1/2 cup milk or cream

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Toss the cubed rutabaga, potatoes, and carrots in oil to lightly coat. Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet or two and sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for an hour, or until the veggies are easily pierced with a fork. Cover with aluminum foil halfway through to speed up the process a little.

Place the vegetables in a food processor with the butter and pulse until coarsely mashed. Then, with food processor on, stream in milk slowly until it becomes a thick puree. Do this in batches if necessary.

If you don't have a food processor, just use a potato masher, hand mixer, or a serving fork.

Serve hot.