In 1991, we were evacuated from Port Au Prince, Haiti because while the Haitian president was in Washington, D.C., the military decided to call elections; coup d’etat. The U.S. government was seriously P.O.’d and ordered “involuntary departure” for all but essential personnel, which didn’t include my husband but did mean me, our son and the miscellaneous animals.
Luckily, we maintained a house in the New York Catskills to which we repaired and installed ourselves, just in time for the devastating, east coast, ice storm of 1991. After the storm hit, our area was without electricity or running water for about a week and a half.
But I had water. Having just left Haiti where power and water outages were common, as soon as the electricity went out, I automatically without thinking, began to fill up the bath tubs, buckets and bowls with water, laughing at myself but mentally unable to break an instinctual habit of 2 years. Good thing. I had enough water for our house and some to share with the neighbors for the first few days until we made arrangements to get water from some of the local wells. Well, yeah!
Why, you might ask, am I going on about this? Well, it’s because of all the bacon in my freezers. You may be shaking your head, Frugal, but if there is ever an outbreak of swine fever, I got it covered 🙂
I made this recipe a while back with quail and it was good! So was this. I changed things up a bit.
Glazed Chicken with Turnip Potato Puree
1/2 lb baby turnips, peeled and cut into cubes
1/2 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 knob of butter
Salt and pepper
2 whole chicken legs
Salt
Pepper
Piment d’espelette
Olive oil
1/2 cup lean bacon batons
2 rounded tbsp brown sugar
8 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp piment d’espelette
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup water
Parsley
Boil the turnips for 5 minutes, add the potatoes and continue to boil for another 10-15 minutes. Add the butter, salt, pepper and mash. Set aside and keep warm.
Season the chicken legs with salt, pepper and piment d’espelette. Brush both sides of the chicken generously with olive oil.
Brown the chicken legs in a hot frying pan until almost cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove, set aside and pour off the fat in the pan.
Add the bacon to the frying pan and brown until just crisp. Mix the sugar, Worcestershire and piment together and add to the pan with the butter. Boil the mixture for about 5 minutes, then add the water, cooking for 2 minutes. Add the chicken legs, bring to a boil, cover and cook for about 10 minutes. Serve with the puree.
That looks quite wonderfully sticky!
Thank you Mad, it was.
Looks fabulous! I really like the photo of the turnips. Do you use a macro lens?
Hi Tessa. I don’t know what a macros lens is. I have one lens. 50mm 1.4
Reason I asked is that the lens that I recently purchased is called a “1:3.5 macro lens” . It’s for super close up shots. I’m NOT a photographer and I found that using that lens really improved my food photos by the amount of detail it captures. Your photos always have a high level of detail and they are just beautiful!
I wonder what those numbers mean. I’m going to look it up on the internet. Thanks Tessa.
Yum. I love turnip purees. Sometimes I mix with carrots as well. The texture is not as nice as potatoes, but flavor is good. Great photos as always!
The carrots sound like a good addition.
Beautiful little turnips and a delicious-looking dish. I can imagine it would work well with quail too.
I love the little turnips, a milder flavor.
All these preparation and Worcestershire sauce would work wonders in this recipe…
Thank you Healthy.
This dish looks SO delicious… must have my boyfriend try this recipe!
http://www.needleandfork.com
Thanks.
Wow you´ve seen some extraordinary situations in your time! We too are used to power and water outages from time to time and I do the same – filling up the bath and buckets! My freezer is packed too so hopefully I can recreate this gorgeous dish. Don´t think I´ll find any turnips here now but I can improvise…after all, that´s what we´re best at isn´t it?!
Yes Chica 🙂
Can you describe what piment d’esplette is? a pepper of some kind? smoked?
It’s like hot paprika. Check it out on the Internet.
I’ve just started experimenting with a 50mm 1.8 on my Canon. It only set me back €129 and gives some stunning results. These to show soon ‘in a post near you’.
Best,
Conor
That is so cheap Conor! I’m happy with my 1.4 but am saving up for a really expensive zoom.
This looks like a delicious meal. I love mixing turnips and potatoes…the flavors compliment each other.
Thank you Karen.
I’m not adverse to a little freezer bacon. :D. That’s a VERY interesting story, Rosemary. This dish looks fabulous as ever.
Thank you Frugal. Well, if you ever run short, just let me know; I’ve got both French and American bacon 🙂
I’ll go French if I must. Nothing like a bit of Wiltshire sweet cured though.
What a great story! It’s amazing how some skills translate. For example, when the city turns off the water for construction, I also fill ever sink and bucket with water. I learned how to take a bucket shower in Niger and you would be amazed how useful that knowledge is in NYC!
Now, I am just waiting for the “I filled the bathtub with bacon” story 😉
Hi Daisy. What’s incredible is that before I started living overseas, I couldn’t imagine the electricity or the water not “being there” and would have been shocked and angry, as if my rights had been denied me, if the electricity or water dared to shut down! It was either change my perspective or be unhappy. I didn’t hesitate.
Was just today reading some recipes in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, the Victorian cookbook, and she lists a puree of parsnips and potatoes as a Scottish specialty. Similar ingredient. Serendipity.
Hi Fay. I’ve missed you. I like Mrs. Beeton’s book also.
Excellent way to make your potatoes more healthy! I will have to add this to my bag of “sneaking veggies into dinner” secrets:]
In of themselves, potatoes are healthy. It’s what you add to them or use in their preparation that can turn any vegetable into a health risk.
Those are the cutest little turnips ever and the puree sounds lovely. Beautiful images, as always!
Thank you.
You tell such fascinating stories. Alas, I just threw my turnips in a soup. Wish I’d done this.
Thank you Greg. I’ll bet those turnips in soup were wonderful.
Reblogged this on Unlaboured Flawless and commented:
I need to make something like this soon