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19 Iyar 5760 - May 24, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
Sheib a Reibel
by Yaffa Shepsel

(Written tongue-in-cheek)

Before you turnip your nose at this, try it first.

We recently wrote about cabbages and things, that is, vegetables from the mustard-family, which includes kohlrabi, radish and turnip, among others. We noted that these are rich in fiber and known to prevent or deflect cancer even once it has striken. The East European diet of our grandparents was rich in these vegetables, probably because there was no electric refrigeration, and they were very poor and could not afford anything that was not cheap or in season. Thence the cabbage, turnip, radish, beet, potato and carrot diet. All very healthful foods, full of vitamins and minerals.

Which brings us to SHEIB A REIBEL. This is a very simple salad my Galicianer husband taught me. You take a TURNIP and grate it coarsely, add a little salt, a little oil. That's all.

Never bought turnips? Don't know what they are? Turnips are like radishes, white, and without the tang. The above salad is very good in small amounts. In fact, it may become a family favorite, and they may crown you

QUEEN OF SHEIB'A REIBEL!

And now to KOHLRABI. I don't think I ever saw it in America. Perhaps our local greengrocer didn't carry it because there was no demand for it. This is an amazing, versatile vegetable. Looks like a turnip, round, light green, but not smooth. Very different in taste.

Eat it raw: shredded thick or thin, with salt and oil. Or shredded together with carrots and tossed with some vinegar, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar = coleslaw made in jiffy that is inexpensive and doesn't need checking. (This Shabbos salad can be frozen.) Beware, however, of kohlrabis that are stringy.

Cook it: (if you got stringy kohlrabis, put them in your soups). Peeled and quartered, it adds a flavor very similar to cabbage. Kohlrabi can be cooked all by itself, with only a little salt and water, and eaten as a side dish. Really delicious and filling. It can be mashed and fried into patties by adding salt, pepper, egg and matza meal.

A delicious kugel: kohlrabi, carrot, squash, onion and potato. Start off with one of each. Next time round, it'll be two.

Grate the vegetables (thick, if you like.) Add egg (2), salt, pepper and matza meal. Is best baked in an oven since the squash tends to make it watery and the kugel will not flip well when fried in a frying pan. (To flip pan-fried potato kugel, just jiggle and loosen the kugel in the pan until it is free, then cover with a large plate and hoopla, over you go. Slide the upside down kugel back in the frying pan and add some more oil to cook the underside. Panfried kugels take quicker than ovenbaked ones, and if you grate them thick, you can turn one out every fifteen minutes! I know! I once made a Pesach bris for a grandchild, and that's what we all ate.)

WE FEED YOU, WE ALSO WANT FEEDBACK. Please let us know how you like this style of cooking advice.

 

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