Ginger Miso Roasted Tokyo Turnips

This is a very flavorful, “umami” packed dish, and is great as an accompaniment to robust dishes like grilled steak, or milder dishes such as a white fish or chicken as a contrast item. You could add orange juice to the miso for a sweeter range of flavor. You can also add radishes to the dish. Blanch for only a few seconds if they are spicy, then add in with the turnips. Roasting radishes produces juicy colorful chunks that are very mildly spicy. A quick sauté of the greens makes a perfect bed for the turnips. If you don’t have the greens, skip that part of the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch Tokyo turnips, tops removed, leaving ½ inch of stem attached, thoroughly washed, cut into ½ inch wedges at the back

1 cup Ginger Miso Roasting Paste (see recipe)

Greens from the above turnips, thick stems removed, leaves washed thoroughly and lightly chopped

Neutral flavored oil as needed

1 tablespoon sake

1 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon orange juice, fresh if possible

½ teaspoon ginger juice, roughly thereabouts- using a ginger grater or Microplane®, peel and grate a ½ x 1½ long piece of ginger for the juice

½ teaspoon, or to taste, good quality soy sauce

½ tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

METHOD:

Heat the oven to 400°F.

Bring a pot of water large enough to cover the turnips by 1 inch to the boil. Heat a 10 inch skillet over medium-low heat.

Once the water boils, add the turnips to the water. Cook for 5-8 minutes, or just until the turnips lose their raw-ness. You should just be able to pierce the side of the turnip with tip of a thin sharp knife without going all the way in. Drain the turnips and rinse with cold water to arrest further cooking. As soon as the turnips are cooled and dried, place into a non-reactive bowl and add the turnips. Add a large dollop of the Miso Ginger Roasting Paste and toss so the turnips are well coated. Use as much paste as needed to coat the turnips. Allow to rest at least 15 minutes, or as much as a day. When ready to roast, place turnips, wide side down, on a lightly oiled sheet pan, and place in the upper third of the hot oven. Roast until the turnips are crisp tender and the miso paste is browned at the edges and golden/bubbling.

While the turnips roast, turn up the heat under the frying pan to medium-high, and film with oil. When oil is almost smoking, add the turnip greens, season with salt and use tongs to turn. Cook until greens start to wilt. Hopefully you will get a little crisping, but don’t cook so long that the greens start to shrink and throw off liquid. Remove greens from the pan to a serving dish that will hold the turnips on top. Add the sake and mirin and turn heat to high. Swirl pan to combine and cook to reduce liquid by 50%. Then add the orange juice, ginger juice, and soy sauce. Cook until liquid is reduced by 80%. Taste the sauce and adjust as necessary. Add greens to the sauce and toss to coat. Transfer to a platter and scatter with the sesame seeds.

The turnips should be done at this point- place on the turnip greens and serve.

Chef’s Notes: The marinade could be used on carrots for roasting, or you could add radishes to this recipe, although if the radishes are juicy you can skip the blanching part of the recipe for the radishes.

Serves: 4

Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen