start with a rutabaga

On By Emily KeithIn EK, in the kitchen, The In Season Weekly
just one small tuber
one small tuber

Every week I get a new copy of NYMag. No, not the refined New Yorker, I’m talking about the often lowbrow and super slick NYMag. There is always an “In Season” recipe in the ‘strategist‘ section that highlights seasonal vegetable recipes from who I assume are reputable authors /chefs of perhaps popular cookbooks/restaurants. I’ve subscribed to this weekly for the past 6 years and never made a single recipe.

Welcome to the awkward dystopian future wherein I will make, to OCD precision, the In Season recipe EVERY WEEK.

This project is an effort to return to my kitchen, I’ve been conspicuously absent from that special fourth room of my apartment. I made champagne jello shots in there at the beginning of the year, they were awful. More recently I discovered these great dehydrated packets of congee so I’ve boiled some water for those, once I cracked an egg into the mix for protein – living large! A few weeks ago I saw some crab cakes on sale and those seemed like a good idea so I put them in the oven and forgot about them. I sent the remnants to NASA because I burned those suckers so badly I think they formed  a new space mineral.

This week the In Season recipe is from “Vegetable Literacy” by Deborah Madison. I know nothing about the book but it’d better be amazing because  Ten Speed Press is asking $40.00 American Dollars per retail copy.

peel the rutabaga with a pairing knife until you have a glowing white orb before you.
peel the rutabaga with a pairing knife until you have a glowing white orb before you.

(That’s my grandmother’s egg-timer next to my bamboo French pepper-mill which was a gift from my Dad. They are in most of the photographs from my kitchen because they are my prized possessions and I like how they look.)

slice the orb into half-inch batons.
slice the orb into half-inch batons.
sunflower seed oil, teaspoon of sea salt, tsp. of caraway seeds, tsp. of paprika
2 tbs. sunflower seed oil, tsp. of sea salt, tsp. of caraway seeds, tsp. of paprika

I recently purchased those measuring spoons at anthropologie while verbally and audibly admonishing myself for doing so. They are ridiculous. I’ve wanted a set for years.

toss everything together and spread on a baking sheet
toss everything together and spread on a baking sheet

Bake at 400 degrees. The recipe doesn’t specify the time so I paced around and peeked in every 3 to 4 minutes which worked well because I actually can’t sit down due to some extremely rigorous barre3 “seat work” that Wise Woman and I subjected ourselves to yesterday. Pain and agony. See also: torture.

halfway there! push yourself! you have 8 more lifetimes of this move!!
halfway there! push yourself! you have 8 more lifetimes of this move!!
plate, put a few glurps of katchup n a fetching tea vessel. enjoy hot.
plate, put a few glurps of ketchup in a fetching tea vessel. enjoy hot.

I ate an entire rutabaga for dinner. Enjoyed these immensely. I’m looking forward to my In Season Weekly Posts. In fact, I received last week’s NYMag today (which is ahead of schedule when your weekly is published in NY and shipped to you by a fulfillment corporation in Florida.)

How do you feel about a future involving Calliope’s Spicy Marinated Mackerel With Avocado? I feel really good about it.

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