Roasted Rutabaga Masala

Adorned with cilantro flowers and mint leaves

Roasted Rutabaga Masala

Cooking for the bookclub, a fairly large group, I knew I had to come up with a slightly easier version of my famous/infamous Curried Oxymorons. 

That dish is so delicious, but it requires a lot of stirring, and as I had ten thousand other things to do to prepare (read: clean up the house!) I decided to use a roasting pan, which meant modifications to that recipe.

Among other modifications, since this group has members who literally whimper and moan at the mere thought of a spicy chilli fragment, I needed to tone it down a lot.  Meanwhile, the next night we were having more company, the Kestlers, who love heat, so I couldn’t resist making this dish all over again for them, this time with lots of chilli. 

You can use as much chilli as you like, but I recommend lots. 

Maureen from bookclub presented me with this!

2 tablespoons mustard oil
1 teaspoon dark mustard seed
1 teaspoon cumin seed
½ teaspoon fennel seed

2 large rutabagas, peeled and diced into cubes
1 large red onion, diced
1 sweet long red pepper, diced
1 inch ginger, julienned
1 to 7 chillies (it’s up to you)
10 curry leaves
1 teaspoon coriander seeds roughly ground
½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
10 to 20 grates of fresh black pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
½ cup dessicated unsweetened coconut
½ cup fresh or frozen green peas

½ large lime, juiced

In a saucepan, heat the mustard oil on medium high, and toss in a few mustard seeds.  When they splutter, toss in the rest, followed by the cumin, then the fennel.  Fry till the cumin and fennel darken a bit, which will only take a few moments.  Pour the oil and spices into a non-stick roasting pan.

Toss in your cubed rutabaga, onion, peppers, chillies, curry leaves, spices, salt and coconut.  Mix and put into the oven at 350 F.  

You will need to stir this at least three times during the cooking period of about an hour and a half.  
In the last ten minutes, add the peas.  When you remove it from the oven, pour the lime juice over it, stirring well.  

I served this vegan dish as a side vegetable, but if you want to make it the main dish, just add a cup of chopped raw almonds before it goes in the oven.  

Roasting the rutabaga makes it even sweeter and more tender than my earlier version.  Each little rutabaga cube looks like an amber jewel, and it tastes like something out of heaven.  If I’d had some fresh pomegranate seeds, I surely would have sprinkled them on at the last minute, to take this dish to make it even more luscious!

I now know the difference between a rutabaga and a turnip, and I urge you to use only the rutabaga for this recipe.  A rutabaga is a wonderful thing.  A turnip is not.  Clearly in that earlier recipe, before the embarassing update, I did not know what I was talking about!  Does anyone out there actually like turnips?

The butter, coconut and peas lend a delicious sweetness to this turnip dish.

Curried Oxymorons: delicious masala turnips*  

When a turnip* (see shocking update, below)  is mentioned, wise people scream and cry, then fly from the room.  Honestly, what could be worse than a turnip?  I can’t imagine whatever coaxed me to try a masala turnip recipe, but I soon discovered that with a little tweaking here and there, it could be astonishingly delicious.  I serve this dish as the main entré, but if you are serving this as a side dish, you can leave out the paneer.

Oxymorons, by the way, are not some kind of idiots, as many people mistakenly assume.  An oxymoron, she says in her shrillest classroom voice, is a short phrase that contains apparently opposite terms, yet has a deeper meaning.  Delicious turnips, jumbo shrimp, bitter sweet, the list goes on.  Meanwhile, here’s the recipe:

The Masala

1 heaping teaspoon cumin seed

1 heaping teaspoon coriander seed

½ teaspoon whole allspice

1 large cinnamon stick

1 heaping teaspoon fennel seed

2 black cardamom, husked and slightly pulverized

3 cloves

½ heaping teaspoon black peppercorns

½ teaspoon ajwain seed (celery)

¼ heaping teaspoon fenugreek seed

½ heaping teaspoon turmeric powder 

On medium heat, in the non-stick pan you will use for this dish, gently roast all of the above ingredients, except the turmeric powder.  When they give off a bit of smoke and fragrance, take off the heat and pour into a spice grinder, but leave the cinnamon in the pan.  Add the turmeric powder to the grinder, and then grind those spices to a fine powder.  Set aside.

The vegetables

1 tablespoon mustard oil (with the whole cinnamon stick)

1 teaspoon dark mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1 red onion, diced

1 inch of ginger, cut into matchsticks

5 garlic cloves

3 jalapeno peppers (less if very hot)

½ habanero pepper, very finely diced (optional)

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter available in jars)

1 turnip, peeled and cubed into bite sized pieces

¼ cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

½ cup water

¾ cup frozen paneer cubes  (Indian cheese available in Indian grocery stores and at Superstore)

½ cup frozen green peas

10 stalks cilantro, washed

2 small limes, juiced 

Once the spices are in the grinder, put the pan back on the stove with the cinnamon stick still in it, and increase the heat to medium high.  When the pan is hot, add the oil, then the mustard seeds.  When they start to sizzle and pop, add the cumin seeds and let cook for a few moments.  When they turn white, add the onion and ginger to the pan, stir and turn down the heat to medium low.  While these are softening and caramelizing, chop the garlic and jalapenos together.  If the peppers are not too hot, you can use a fairly rough chop, but go finer if they are very hot.  If you are using the half a habanero, you may want to seed it, and for sure you’ll want to cut it into almost imperceptible ribbons, and chop those finely.  Turn on the hood vent, and add these to the pan, and cook till the garlic softens.  Add the ground masala, and the ghee.  I’d like to claim this is a healthy dish, but this much ghee is a little shocking…  This is a high fibre , vitamin and mineral dish though…

Fry the masala on medium low heat.  Peel and cube the turnip, and add to the masala along with the coconut.  This is a dry curry which needs to be stirred about every five minutes.  Watch carefully that nothing burns, but that the masala and turnip caramelise a little in all that clarified butter.  This is a good time to start the rice.  When the rice and water start to boil, use that as your signal to add the water to the turnip, and cover well.  By the time the rice is cooked, about twenty minutes later, add the frozen paneer to the turnip, stir and cover.  Fluff the cooked rice, and add the frozen peas to the turnip, cover again.  These take only a couple of minutes to cook.  Wash the cilantro and using scissors, cut the stalks and leaves onto the turnip.  Pour on the lime juice and stir.  Serve over the rice, and enjoy this seemingly impossible oxymoronic delicious turnip recipe.

*Shocking Update: June 8, 2012   I confess I didn't know the difference between a turnip and a rutabaga!  I tried this dish with the smaller, purple and white objects actually known as turnips, and I screamed and cried and fled out of the room.  Tip:  use rutabaga!