Iron Chef Blogger Challenge: Turnips!

I'm sort of cheating with this blog, because while I did make a turnip recipe, I didn't like it that much. I made a turnip puff, which is basically a bunch of boiled mashed vegetables mixed with bread crumbs and egg to make sort of a casserole. The recipe I liked to is actually to make a parsnip puff. However, you can replace the pound of parsnips with a pound of turnip. Be sure you peel the turnip, and you just cut into cubes before boiling. The texture was sort of weird, and I wasn't crazy about the nutmeg involved either.

I'm also going to link to a turnip recipe that I actually like: The Lady's Pork Stew. (The recipe is a ways down the page.) It's really good, but don't listen when she says to leave the skin on the turnips. I think they're way too bitter. The downside is that it can sometimes be difficult to tell the turnips from potatoes in the finished product; which is better stressful for any vegetables haters you may have in your life.

I also roasted some new potatoes, and the most exciting bit - I fried chicken! I've never really done that before, except to make oven-fried chicken. But, I was very proud. It didn't quite get done and I had to finish it in the oven, but it was so delicious. And, I'm going to list that recipe today instead, because I recommend it much more highly than weird turnip puffs!

As a side note, I had the most amazing mac and cheese for lunch today, after Travis took me to the aquarium for Valentine's Day. It had cremini mushrooms, chicken, smoked bacon, and truffle oil. What a lovely day! Now, I'm taking some chocolate shortcake out of the oven (for chocolate strawberry shortcake later) and preparing to sear some duck breasts for dinner. In retrospect, this place might be cleaner if I didn't cook so much... oh well!

Southern Fried Chicken (from the Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook)

3 eggs
1/3 cup water
2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon pepper
One 1 - 2 1/2 pound chicken, cut into pieces (I just used thighs and drumsticks)
Crisco shortening for frying (I didn't have enough, so I used peanut oil as well)

Season chicken and return it to the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours. I used some seasoning salt a garlic powder/salt/pepper mixture that I keep in a little tupperware container.

Beat eggs with water. To just enough self-rising flour to coat all the chicken, add black pepper. Dip seasoned chicken in egg; coat well in flour mixture. Fry in a dutch oven (or I guess a fairly deep cast iron skillet) in moderately hot shortening (350 degrees) until brown and crisp. (I used about an inch of oil... I don't know if that's right, but internet research led me to believe it was reasonable.) Remember that dark meat requires longer cooking time - about 13-14 minutes, compared with 8-10 minutes for white meat.

Note: My chicken was not done after the allotted time, so I put it in a 400 degree oven for a few extra minutes. (It was already pre-heated from the turnip puff. Is it just me, or does just the name turnip puff sound strange? Ah well.)