{"id":14488,"date":"2014-06-26T12:39:07","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T17:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=14488"},"modified":"2014-06-26T12:41:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T17:41:26","slug":"yokel-food-animal-vegetable-alien-the-kohlrabi-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/yokel-food-animal-vegetable-alien-the-kohlrabi-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Yokel Food: “Animal? Vegetable? Alien? The KOHLRABI Explained”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yokel Food: Locally Grown Recipes and Wisdom from Yokna Bottoms Farm<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

by Betsy Chapman<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"KohlrabiLikePortlandi\"<\/a>Last week, I watched an episode of the satirical, absurdist comedy\u00a0Portlandia<\/em>\u00a0in which a hip, overly excited couple receives their weekly CSA box only to find a baffling, unusual exotic fruit that they have no idea what to do with. And so, of course, it sits on their counter\u2014for days.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an unexpected twist, the strange fruit begins re-organizing bookshelves and cleaning windows while the unsuspecting couple sleeps. Turns out the fruit is actually a space alien. As the fruit alien ascends into outer space, the couple watches on, waving and eagerly anticipating their next CSA distribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kohlrabi-veg\"<\/a>As a fan of absurdist comedy and a farm worker, this episode hit\u00a0really\u00a0close to home. I was reminded instantly of perhaps the most perplexing vegetable we offer at our CSA distributions and weekly farmers markets\u2014the humble but totally confusing kohlrabi<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In appearance, the kohlrabi is often described as resembling a purple spaceship, a weird deep sea creature, or a green baby alien. I\u2019ve seen even the most savvy market-goer rendered speechless when encountering this strange member of the Brassica<\/em> family, traditionally used in German and Indian cuisines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kohlrabi-intern\"<\/a>However bizarre it might appear, the kohlrabi is hardly exotic, very versatile, and quite tasty. The kohlrabi is an AKA kind of vegetable\u2014sometimes called a German turnip, turnip cabbage, or above-ground turnip, this cabbage cousin has a softball-sized green or purple bulbous base topped with long slender stems and frilly greens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pronunciation:<\/strong><\/span> \u201cCole-Robby\u201d<\/span>
\nTaste:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Mild, sweet, crisp flesh. A little like broccoli with a dash of turnip and splash of cabbage.<\/span>
\nPreparation:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0All parts of the kohlrabi are good for eating. The round base must be peeled before eating or using in recipes.<\/span>
\nRaw:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Kohlrabi is a cool, crisp raw snack, thinly sliced, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Sliced into sticks, kohlrabi makes an excellent and unusual addition to a veggie tray. The bulb can also be grated and used in coleslaw.<\/span>
\n\"BetsyVegetableFace2\"<\/a>Baked:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Kohlrabi makes good, less starchy baked home fries. Dice bulb, toss with chili powder, ground cumin, curry powder or paprika, non-GMO cornstarch, and olive oil and bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes or until crispy and brown.<\/span>
\nFried:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Cut into French fry-like sticks, deep fry and season to taste. Or make kohlrabi fritters by mixing the shredded bulb with egg and flour and frying in hot oil or butter.<\/span>
\nGrilled:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Slice the bulb into \u00bc inch thick rounds. Season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil and fresh thyme then throw on the grill until tender.<\/span>
\nSauteed:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Cook the greens and diced bulb like you would turnip roots and greens. Or try the greens and bulb sauteed with onions and finished with cream and nutmeg.<\/span>
\nPickled:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Try a quick refrigerator pickle with ginger and honey or a fermented pickle with garlic and dill.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all get into food ruts and there\u2019s no better cure than trying something new. I cannot promise that our kohlrabis will re-organize your bookshelves or clean your windows, but they\u2019ll certainly add interest and excitement to your local plate! Give one a try this week when you stop by Oxford City Market<\/strong><\/a> on Tuesday or Mid-Town Farmers’Market<\/strong><\/a> on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Final note:<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Look for Yokna Bottoms kohlrabi on Snackbar<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s upcoming menu! Plus find our collards at Local Flavor<\/strong><\/a>, our carrots at ravine<\/strong><\/a>, and our new potatoes at Oxford Canteen<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yokel Food: Locally Grown Recipes and Wisdom from Yokna Bottoms Farm by Betsy Chapman Last week, I watched<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":14496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening-farming","category-local-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/KohlrabiFeat.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}