Kohlrabi Gratin

One of our favourite vegetables is sadly one that we don't eat that often.  We first discovered kohlrabi in gardening seed catalogues, we knew nothing about them other than the fact that they looked like small sputniks.  That image alone was enough for us to try and grow them.  Our first attempts were feeble, only two or three of the row of seeds we planted germinated and when one finally got big enough to eat it was old and woody.

Not put off by our initial attempts we tried again the following year with a much higher success rate.  I had a German colleague at the time who was mad for kohlrabi.  She informed me that she loved to eat them raw like an apple but that that wasn't necessarily normal.  We played about with them, finding new recipes to try with every harvest.

Now that we have all but given up the allotment* we don't get to eat kohlrabi that often.  It seldom appears in the "super" markets and when we do find it at farmers markets or on Leeds market it is often too expensive.  We were lucky to find a really nice large purple kohlrabi at Headingley Farmers Market at a price that we were willing to pay and quickly decided on how we were going to cook it.

Kholrabi gratin is every bit as good as it sounds.  Thinly sliced kohlrabi is layered in a buttered oven proof dish, seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper and then covered in cream and strong cheese.  It is then baked for half an hour covered and quarter of an hour uncovered to crisp up the top.  We've had this with salad, bread and on occasion, on it's own.  Tonight we happened to have some good sausages so we had those.  The gratin was definitely the star of the show though.

*a hard decision but probably the right one

Olympic Food Challenge: Russia - Russian-style Kohlrabi

Unlike most of the countries I drew for the Olympic Food Challenge, Russia gave me quite a peculiar problem.  The internet is literally awash with recipes for Russian food.  In the end, time and my ludicrously low boredom threshold, forced my hand.  I targeted the BBC and Good Food websites to see what I could find.  What I came up with was Russian-style Kohlrabi.  I cannot comment on how Russian this dish is but as we love kohlrabi, there was no way that we were not going to cook it.

Our love of kohlrabi came from the allotment.  We only wanted to grow unusual vegetables and odd varieties of veg that you can't buy in the shops.  I had never had kohlrabi before, but as soon as I saw the seed packet, complete with picture of a turnip crossed with Sputnik, I knew we had to grow some.  Our first attempt wasn't great but the few kohlrabi that did germinate were wonderful, nutty and sweet, somewhere between and apple and a turnip and good both raw and cooked.  We've since had more success growing our own (at one point we were growing multiple varieties) but since R entered our lives, allotment time has been limited so tonight's kohlrabi are shop bought.

The cubed and blanched kohlrabi are gently fried with a softened onion and some bacon and finished with paprika and caraway seeds.  What is there not to like about a recipe that simple?  I was wondering if this should be a side dish, but for the life of me, having eaten it, I can't decide what it would go best on the side of.  That said, I'm stuffed.  Two kohlrabi, a couple of rashers of bacon and half an onion for two greedy adults doesn't sound a lot, but it was surprisingly filling and very tasty.

The only additions were some soured cream and a few hunks of rye bread.  I have a funny feeling the next time I eat this it will be accompanied with a raging hangover.  Every hangover needs bacon*.  The kohlrabi has a mild buttery flavour when boiled but is more complex than potatoes would be and no hangover is complete without some smoky heat from paprika.

Oh, in case you were wondering, Russia are bound to do really well at the Olympics. They always do!

*apart from the vegetarian ones