Stewed Rutabagas

Deep Run Roots

What can you do with rutabagas? Here's a pretty standard southern side. We made this in the spring, but these last a long time and are usually available through the winter.

You can find this recipe here: http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/stewed-rutabagas/ , although the last step mentions greens and sausage that are not mentioned elsewhere, so that's...weird.

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[00:04]: hi guys today on cooking the books with
[00:07]: Heather we're cooking from deep run
[00:10]: roots movie in Howard's cookbook and I
[00:12]: happen to get some rutabagas from my
[00:16]: produce box this week and so I was
[00:18]: looking for something to do with them
[00:19]: and I found a very simple stewed
[00:21]: rutabagas recipe I don't think I've ever
[00:23]: had them before I don't know what to
[00:25]: expect but it's
[00:26]: all ingredients I had in the house and
[00:29]: seems relatively simple it takes a while
[00:32]: took it cook it 30 minutes to like up to
[00:38]: two hours once it's all in the pot but
[00:42]: depends on how old the rutabagas are but
[00:44]: we're gonna we're gonna give it a try so
[00:47]: the only thing that I really have to do
[00:49]: for this recipe this for arts
[00:52]: preparation I've already measured out my
[00:53]: other ingredients which wasn't that much
[00:55]: but I have to peel and chop the
[00:57]: rutabagas they are a root vegetable and
[00:59]: they are really kind of hard to chop
[01:02]: through so I'm gonna go ahead and get
[01:05]: that done I've got my peeler she has a
[01:08]: story in the book about the woman who
[01:10]: she learned this from and how she just
[01:13]: used a knife and didn't even use a
[01:15]: cutting board so that's an interesting
[01:17]: story if you want to read that up read
[01:18]: up on that but I'm gonna use my peeler
[01:30]: okay so everything is all peeled and I'm
[01:34]: going to chop them and you'll notice
[01:35]: that there are a couple of areas on
[01:37]: these where I couldn't get a good peel
[01:40]: I'm just going to chop those areas off
[01:42]: as I chop them up need about a one-inch
[01:46]: dice so not too small okay all done
[02:01]: chopping I'm not really concerned that
[02:04]: some of these are bigger than others in
[02:06]: the end we're gonna end up kind of not
[02:09]: pureeing them not really mashing them
[02:11]: but but we are going to take a chopper
[02:13]: to them so they're so they're not pieces
[02:15]: and so we're just gonna cook them until
[02:17]: they're relatively done so that's it
[02:20]: here the rest happens on the stove the
[02:23]: next step for stewed rutabagas is to
[02:26]: take some water I've measured that out
[02:29]: already and add 8 ounces of bacon she
[02:32]: suggests slab bacon but sliced bacon
[02:35]: will do fine and this is what I had on
[02:37]: hand and just put the bacon in the water
[02:40]: and we're going to bring this up to a
[02:43]: boil and then reduce it to a simmer for
[02:47]: 15 minutes rendering some of the fat
[02:50]: into the water before we put the
[02:56]: rutabagas in here with the bacon so
[02:59]: we're gonna wait for that come up to a
[03:00]: boil actually I believe cover we're
[03:07]: gonna cover that and bring that up to a
[03:10]: boil
[03:11]: that'll make it happen faster
[03:16]: [Music]
[03:25]: all right as you can see you were at a
[03:28]: pretty good rolling boil now I'm gonna
[03:30]: put the lid back on and turn it down to
[03:33]: where I know
[03:34]: Ilse yeah and got my timer set we'll be
[03:49]: back in 15 minutes so this has been
[03:51]: cooking for about 15 minutes it's
[03:53]: probably been a little bit high because
[03:54]: I didn't pay too much attention to it
[03:56]: and it's boiling like crazy with the lid
[03:58]: on but now all we have to do is add the
[04:05]: rutabagas that we already feels and
[04:07]: chops to the water with the bacon all
[04:16]: right and now we just let that go
[04:22]: I think lid on for another hour and
[04:26]: check on it make sure that it's got
[04:29]: enough water that it doesn't you know
[04:32]: dry out but with a lid on it's probably
[04:34]: not going to make sure it they're tender
[04:38]: before it goes all the way through them
[04:40]: and then they're done so we'll be back
[04:43]: in about an hour
[04:44]: these been cooking for about an hour now
[04:46]: and oh speaking of keeping at me so
[04:53]: we're gonna check and make sure that
[04:54]: they are done it looks like yep fork
[05:01]: goes through so they're pretty tender
[05:02]: I've checked them a couple times just to
[05:05]: make sure and I was pretty sure that
[05:06]: we're gonna be done so yeah
[05:09]: pork is work is going through pretty
[05:11]: well so they're done now we need to dine
[05:16]: most of the water off of these and take
[05:19]: the bacon out so
[05:23]: that's what we're gonna do now I'm gonna
[05:26]: go ahead and take the bacon out
[05:30]: hopefully it comes out pretty easily
[05:32]: that's I think that's where a slab of
[05:34]: bacon would be much easier at least my
[05:41]: pieces were thick sliced bacon so they
[05:46]: didn't fall apart too much there we go
[05:52]: now I'm not sure that I'm gonna have
[05:56]: enough room in this container for all of
[05:58]: that water but I'm going to just drain
[06:01]: it into here I've got a strainer to
[06:03]: catch any rutabagas that want to fall
[06:05]: out and of course I'm gonna make a mess
[06:10]: yeah that's not gonna be enough
[06:15]: [Music]
[06:47]: okay now she's set to drain all but a
[06:50]: half a cup so I'm going to just add a
[06:54]: half a cup back in here
[06:58]: [Music]
[07:08]: that's about right should be good and
[07:11]: then let's see we add there's I've pre
[07:18]: measured this dark brown sugar salt and
[07:25]: pepper and then and of course I'm sure I
[07:32]: get as much out as I can
[07:34]: I've got the water from the steam made
[07:39]: the spices sticky and then you take
[07:42]: either a colored chopper which is what
[07:45]: this is a potato masher or even just a
[07:50]: large fork and sort of chop these up
[07:53]: you're not looking for mashed potato
[07:54]: looking for mashed potato consistency
[07:56]: but just sort of I don't know a smaller
[08:02]: pieces and what I'm going by is the
[08:10]: picture that's included with this more
[08:12]: than anything else at this point because
[08:15]: like I said I've never had these so I've
[08:20]: had rutabagas before we made a roasted
[08:25]: rutabaga recipe with pork tenderloin
[08:30]: from this book before and I've you know
[08:32]: you can just roast them plain and
[08:37]: whatever you can cook them like most
[08:42]: root vegetables they can stand in for
[08:44]: potatoes a lot of times there's slightly
[08:49]: less starchy
[09:04]: okay I'm going to just stir this up to
[09:09]: get the spices and everything mixed up
[09:12]: see if I have any more pieces and it
[09:16]: looks like I do I think that's probably
[09:29]: as good as it's gonna get at this point
[09:31]: so there you have it that is what the
[09:35]: Studebakers look like I'm gonna put a
[09:39]: lid on this and just keep it warm while
[09:41]: we wait for the rest of our dinner to be
[09:44]: ready and and then we'll try it
[09:56]: okay so you guys have just watched me
[09:58]: make stewed rutabagas from deep run
[10:02]: roots 15 Howard's cookbook and that was
[10:05]: a couple days ago my husband and I had
[10:08]: some of the leftovers for dinner tonight
[10:09]: so I went to go ahead and let you guys
[10:10]: know what I thought of the recipe it was
[10:14]: very easy it was I think pretty
[10:19]: authentic to eastern North Carolina my
[10:22]: husband who is from the area says that
[10:25]: he's sure he's had something like that
[10:26]: before and I know I've never made it
[10:28]: before so it's probably with his family
[10:31]: we both enjoyed it it's really good it's
[10:34]: very easy it's you know it's it's a
[10:39]: vegetable it's a nice side my kids did
[10:42]: not like it they're kind of not fans of
[10:48]: turnips or rutabagas or anything like
[10:50]: that very much
[10:52]: I know that I've made this honey glazed
[10:57]: pork tenderloin with bacon roasted
[10:59]: rutabagas before which were absolutely
[11:01]: delicious and they didn't like those
[11:02]: either so usually if you roast a
[11:05]: vegetable they'll like it but we're you
[11:09]: know if they don't like its dude they
[11:12]: might like it roasted but they didn't
[11:13]: like that roasted so they probably just
[11:15]: don't like rutabagas or turnips in
[11:17]: general so I would certainly make it
[11:20]: again I'll keep plugging on those kids
[11:24]: and I they eat it because that's the
[11:27]: rule but they did not like it but yeah
[11:32]: it was pretty easy there were no no
[11:34]: gotchas no mistakes the only hard part
[11:39]: would be trying to figure out if your
[11:42]: rutabagas are done but I think just
[11:43]: about everybody you can figure out you
[11:45]: can put a fork through it it's done so
[11:48]: all right I hope you enjoyed and we'll
[11:51]: be back next time with another another
[11:54]: recipe not sure what that's gonna be yet
[11:56]: but hope you'll join us at cooking the
[11:60]: books with Heather
[12:02]: [Music]