What the Hell Do I Do With All This Kohlrabi??

A perplexing question indeed! Those readers who have taken part in a CSA (C0mmunity Supported Agriculture - where a farm sends you a portion of its produce every week) will either be familiar with this question, or a variation thereon (What the hell do with all this/these kale/turnips/dandelion greens/radishes???). Well, as in my new house we have one person working for a farm that gives us a CSA share every week, for my first week and a half we found ourselves with probably six huge kohlrabi on our hands, and it was largely up to me to figure out what the hell to do with them.

This is not so much of a straight up recipe post, because this question yielded multiple answers!

The first approach we took was to cut it up with some squash and bake it in the oven with butter, salt and pepper. This worked pretty well - the kohlrabi was still decidedly crunchier than the squash, but it all worked out and had a lovely dinner of it alongside some Lentil Shepherd's Pie.

Some time after that, I got my cookbooks in the mail and was able to look up kohlrabi in the Joy of Cooking, and discovered that, among other things, it had "an affinity for" tomatoes and cream. Thus, I tried making a creamy tomato sauce to go over pasta, in which kohlrabi was the main vegetable. This ended up working decently well, although the kohlrabi was still a bit too crunchy in this instance (it also featured alongside squash again). The basic process, however, was to start the kohlrabi sauteing over medium heat for several minutes, then add the onion, then the squash, and then the other ingredients, so that the kohlrabi got enough time to cook.

After this I got a bit more daring. We decided that we wanted to make chili for dinner, and what went in to give it some extra umph? Indeed! It was perhaps one of the world's first batches of kohlrabi chili! I followed a similar process here to the one outlined above: you have to begin by leaving the kohlrabi to saute over medium heat with a good dollop of oil or butter before adding anything else. The chili actually turned out really well! I would recommend this to anyone with a random kohlrabi or two on their hands, because it gets incorporated really well and just adds more foodiness to the chili. One thing to note, however: in this recipe we experimented with leaving the purple skins on, which didn't turn out badly per se, but we were spitting out skins the whole evening, so I recommend trimming them off.



The last use we came up with (after making another batch of pasta with kohlrabi in it) was actually to saute it in a skillet with other produce from the next CSA share, which might have (aside from the chili) been my favorite. Naming this creation "harvest jamboree", we began much like we did before, sauteing the kohlrabi alone. I then added potatoes, and let them sizzle together until both veggies got nice and golden brown on the outside. Then came the squash (zucchini, summer squash and patty pan), and once that was cooked I added several handfuls of frozen corn, some chickpeas, some garlic and four minced chilis (two jalapenos and two unidentified sweet peppers). We served up the final dish with sauteed greens (rainbow chard) and some grain left in our cabinets, labeled erroneously as "qinoa" but was actually irish oatmeal, but that still turned out to be yummy.



Well, that just about did it for the kohlrabi - the roots at least! There was still one use to list: broth! Since these kohlrabi all came with leaves still attached, I collected them in a bag and refrigerated them with all sorts of other vegetable matter and made a big batch of veggie broth with them. I can safely say that we used up that kohlrabi well and truly!

Well, while I would hope that in your cooking adventures you didn't find yourself with six kohlrabi to use, I certainly enjoyed this culinary challenge, and I look forward to the next one that cooking from a CSA presents me with!

Boswell Chili

Hey guys. Hope you've been enjoying your latkes, and now you can have the authentic Boshenke accompaniment. Boshenke being the communal name for Emily, Iain and myself, a merger of our last names that is an inevitable title for our forthcoming restaurant (forthcoming being in approx. three decades). This is based on my Dad's recipe, and is only slightly modified from it because I couldn't find some of the right ingredients in Ireland, where I first learned how to cook for myself. If you want to make this a meat recipe, you can sub out one of the cans of beans for 1lb. ground meat, cooking the ground meat in a skillet over medium-high heat until no longer pink, and draining off the grease that sweats from the meat for later use. Add it in with the beans, corn, tomatoes and spices.

Boswell Chili

Ingredients
2 bell peppers
2 15oz or so cans of beans, whatever kind tickles your fancy
1 32oz/28oz/whatever big variety of can diced tomatoes
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic
10oz package frozen sweet corn, about 1 1/4 cups
1/3 or so of a thai pepper or as much as you like of another spicy variety
160z broth of some kind. I made my own from some leftover broccoli stems and scallions and the husks of onions and garlic I chopped for this meal. Pretty straightforward, just cut everything up, saute it in butter on medium or so heat to soften and release flavor, but don't let anything brown or cook too much, then cover in water and boil/simmer for 45 minutes - an hour. Instant veggie broth. Just be sure to drain it and toss the solids, they're kind of gross.
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 Tablespoon salt
olive oil

Supplies
Large pot
Cutting board
Knife
Wooden spoon

Tuneage
Minnesota Public Radio! They had some sweet harp music on the air at cooking time.

1. Cut things - dice your onion, cut out the stems of the peppers and cut everything into nice little chunks, 1/4-1/2". Mince the garlic and spicy pepper. SAFETY WARNING: always wash your hands after you cut spicy peppers, *especially* if you are male and plan on going to the bathroom. There are certain things that are OK to visit a man's secret regions, chili oil is not one of them.

2. First saute - drop some olive oil into your large pot - a couple tablespoons, maybe? I never measure oil. Just put enough so that whatever you're frying doesn't burn, but not so much that everything gets soggy and greasy. Heat it up to just above medium and throw in all your sauteables - the onion, peppers, and garlic, and this is when you cook your meat, too, if you're eating omnivorously. Cook this until the onions are translucent, stirring well to keep things from sticking to the bottom.

3. Add and stew - throw in the tomatoes, corn, beans, broth, and spices - the salt, cumin, and chili powder. You don't have to be exact with the cumin and chili powder. I usually add a little more. This most recent recipe was blessed by fate and my approximate heapings turned out to be exactly right. Let this boil first, then reduce down to a gentle simmer and let it go for at least 45 minutes, preferably and hour and a quarter. Don't cook it so much that the peppers get really mushy. I have never had this happen but I believe it to be theoretically possible.

And you're done! Taste it at the end to make sure it's good. If it's not flavorful enough, add more salt and/or oregano; if it needs more of a kick, add chili powder; if it's too thin or needs fortification add some cumin. Dress it with grated cheddar. My dad puts cilantro on it and while I like cilantro, too, they didn't have it in Ireland so I never remember to get it.

Peace, love, chili!