Sour Turnip With Mashed Potatoes And Meat

Hello, Chefs!😋

After my last, more global recipes, actually first try, I'm back with a traditional peasant dish mainly prepared in the broader region: the western part of Slovenia, Friuli, Italy, and Istria, Croatia.

This dish's base is a pickled turnip, served with mashed potatoes and meat, but it can also be cooked without meat.

It was most often prepared in winter when there were no fresh vegetables. It's a simple and tasty dish; the essential ingredient is sour or pickled turnips or sauerkraut.

The recipe is my grandmother's recipe, and we prepare it this way at home.

Ingredients for 4-5 persons:

a kilo of sour turnips
a kilo of potatoes
a piece (0.3 - 0.5 kg) of meat, usually pork; I have a piece of pork ribs here
1 large onion
a few cloves of garlic
a teaspoon of smoked paprika
a teaspoon of tomato paste
a few peppercorns
a few tablespoons of olive oil

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The preparation is straightforward; I have not mentioned the salt because pickled turnips are usually very salty and must be washed in cold water once or several times before being cooked.
It is cooked together with the meat. Some people use dry smoked meat, but it has to be cooked separately. Even smoked meat like that is very salty; we use fresh.
Add a sprinkling of garlic and a few peppercorns. You can also use bay leaves, but I couldn't find any, although I know we have them somewhere :)

Once everything is in the pot, pour in water. I poured in about 2 liters of cold water.

I covered it with a lid to bring it to a boil and then turned the heat down to a minimum boil.

When the turnips were slowly cooking, I peeled the potatoes, cut them into medium-sized pieces, and put them in another pot to boil.

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Then, I took the lid off the turnip pot to see what was happening. I cut the meat into smaller pieces, added a teaspoon of smoked paprika and tomato paste, and let it cook on low heat.

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The potatoes are still being cooked, and I have time to cut the onions.

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The turnip has cooked, and the heat is stopped. The potatoes are also cooked, and the water is drained off, saving about a dime of water from the potatoes.

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Now, I fry the onion in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until it is golden and almost caramelized.

Then, I add the cooked potatoes to the pan, fry them, and mash them with the onions.
If it seems dry, add some water from cooking the potatoes.
And some people add water from cooking the turnips, which is sour.