Rutabaga Röschti

Dear Lauren,

November through January is pretty much a blur. I wish I could say I was past the bronchitis, pleurisy and other maladies, but I'm not. But today I feel...pretty good! So I seized the day and took a picture of this gorgeous rutabaga. Is it gorgeous to you? I love the purple and the green and the scars. It might not be the best looking rutabaga, I've no clue, this is the first one I've ever had and you picked it up for me so I have no point of comparison. To me it's beautiful because it's the beginning of me hopefully kicking what's had be down for so long.

So, I have one...now what?

I have some friends who eat rutabagas because of their low carb qualities. Rebbekkah likes to roast, Lesia likes to use the crock pot and Janet makes mock mashed potatoes with hers. They all sound good to me.

This root vegetable is huge! In order to peel it, you have to cut it up so you can handle it. At least I did. Once that's done it just looks like a potato.

I started thinking about how we like to eat potatoes around here and wondered if these would work for hash browns or Shepherd's Pie? My heritage is Swiss and my mother used to make something called röschti but the way I remember it, she used sliced rather than shredded potatoes. And onions. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong but isn't that the way memories go?

Rutabaga Röschti

4-5 tablespoons butter, it should be a thick layer covering the bottom of the skillet

1 rutabaga*, peeled and thinly sliced

1 onion, any size, thinly sliced

coarse kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

optional - thinly sliced green pepper

Heat your skillet, cast iron if you have one, over medium or medium low heat. You know how how your stove top is, use your discretion. Add the butter and when it's melted, add the rutabaga and onion slices to the pan. Place a lid/cover over the skillet to help the rutabagas steam so that even the veg that isn't browning will cook. Wait 10 minutes. With a flipper, check to see if the rutabagas are nice and brown. If so, you can gently flip sections of the veg over and repeat the process. Make sure the rutabaga is very brown before flipping. The brown crust is the tastiest part! You can go from brown to black in about 1 minute so watch it. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

*Note: rutabagas come in all sizes. Mine was VERY BIG! So I made two skillets worth!

Love,

P.S. We say it like this - RURshtee. I wonder if that's correct?

P.P.S. I used my food processor's slicing blade. Since you got one for Christmas, I'd use it if I were you. On the other hand, you can use a knife, or a mandolin.

P.P.S.S. Once you make it once, you will make it for the aroma alone. The house smells amazing!