From My Garden - Turnip Gratin

I recently realised that so far I have only posted one recipe which contained some produce from my kitchen garden. I was planning to show you our strawberries, but I always picked and ate them straight off the plant when I saw a new one is beautifully red and ripe. They were so sweet and juicy I couldn't help but eat them all. P. was lucky when he got one or two.

We make salads basically every day as we get a constant supply of lettuce, rocket and herbs, but that's nothing so interesting to blog about. This actually reminds me, I still owe you a garden update! It has grown so much since my first post that you would not recognise it. We will have first tomatoes soon. I spotted some tiny green ones last week. I can't wait!

Anyway, today's post is about turnips. I discovered turnips last year. I've never eaten them before, but they are apparently commonly eaten in the UK same as swede. I actually took a liking for this vegetable, and when we were choosing seeds for our garden, I wanted to grow my own turnips. There was a funny story of our turnips. When P. was telling his parents about our garden, they were quite surprised that we grow and eat turnips, because they are known as only eaten by animals in the Czech Republic. Well, different countries have different customs for eating food. :) I'm glad I stumbled upon this vegetable and I really like it.

Their taste reminds me of radishes or more like kohlrabi, and they are delicious baked with cream or creme fraiche, pancetta, garlic and thyme. Turnip gratin became one of P's favourites. The gratin would make a great side dish for grilled meat, but we usually eat it on its own with a salad. Do you eat turnips and what's your favourite way to use them? I'd love to know.

Turnip gratin
serves 2

6 baby turnips, peeled and thinly sliced
250ml double cream
2 garlic clove, crashed
2 spring fresh thyme, leaves chopped
pinch of ground nutmeg
7 slices pancetta ham, cut into 2-3cm pieces
salt and freshly ground pepper

1tbsp grated parmesan

Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. In a small saucepan, whisk together the cream, garlic, thyme. Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Prepare a small gratin dish and arrange the turnip slices and pancetta slices in overlapping layers. Always put one pancetta slice between two turnip slices. Pour over the cream mixture and sprinkle with parmesan over top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the turnips are tender.