Karin's Week Seventeen Recipe: Kohlrabi Remoulade

This recipe is a result of still having 1/2 of my Giant Kohlrabi leftover from last week's recipe. Two people cannot eat a 3lb kohlrabi in a single sitting.  Looking around for a recipe that had ingredients that I had on hand, I found this by using SimplyRecipes.com. As I had already had on-hand the ingredients for making guacamole, I thought that this might be an interesting recipe to try. Kohlrabi has the flavor of a cross between cabbage and broccoli, with a bit of radish thrown in. It's nice and firm, so once you get it peeled, it's very easy to chop or grate, etc.

Kohlrabi Remoulade

For the remoulade:
2 small-ish, kohlrabi, thickly peeled
2 heaped tablespoons of good quality mayonnaise (see below)
3 fat green olives, pitted and finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
Small palmful of hazelnuts, roasted, cooled and chopped
2 teaspoons of grain mustard
Sea salt and pepper

What I did was grate the half kohlrabi I had left on the large holes of a box grater, which made it about 2x the amount called for in the recipe. So I doubled the mayo, garlic, and mustard, and omitted the olives and hazelnuts. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

For the guacamole:
2 ripe but firm large Hass avocado
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 heaping tsp of sweet chilli sauce
Cayenne pepper, to taste
1.5 tomatoes chopped
juice of 1 ½ lemons

Handful of leaves (arugula, spinach, whatever you like)


Smash the avocados in a small bowl or molcajete*. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the greens) in order to the bowl, mixing thoroughly after each addition. You could also use your own guacamole recipe.


To serve: Place some greens on the plate, top with a mound of guacamole, then a mound of the remoulade.
 

*Using the molcajete always reminds me of visiting Mexico or one of the other Latin American countries. I picked mine up on a trip to Juarez from a small housewares store in the city center - a true molcajete is made of volcanic stone. Now that it is summer, I can use it to make sauces from all kinds of fresh veggies, so you may be seeing more of this nifty device.

Verdict on this was very delicious, and kohlrabi is much better raw than cooked. I think I will be making this again, albeit with a much smaller kohlrabi to start with. Nate's point was, anything that is 50% guacamole has to be delicious. The remoulade gave it more of a salad flair, and we ate it alongside brats on the grill. I think this would make a great summer picnic dish, but I might use a food processor for all the chopping/grating.

Karin's Bonus Week 14 Recipe: Lime Pork Chops with Tomato Sour Cream Garnish (but not with pork)

This recipe is from a book that we got for a wedding present, The Big Book of Backyard Cooking. I have made this recipe in the past with boneless pork chops and it was amazing.  This time, I didn't have the pork chops, but had some nice tuna steaks thawed.  I thought, hmmm, citrus and seafood usually have an affinity, I wonder what would happen if I used the tuna?

Lime Pork Chops with Tomato Sour Cream Garnish

6 - 5oz boneless centercut pork loin chops, 3/1-1" thick, trimmed of fat (I used tuna steaks instead.)
1/4 c olive oil
3 serrano peppers, seeded and minced
2.5 T fresh lime juice (2-3 limes) (I used bottled)
1.5 tsp ground cumin
Kosher salt
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Garnish
3/4 c sour cream
12 small cherry tomatoes, quartered & seeded
3 green onions including 3" of green stems, finely sliced
Kosher salt
3 T chopped fresh cilantro

*I ended up using 2 tsp of red pepper flakes in the marinade, as I forgot to buy the chile peppers. I also used 1 med tomato instead of the cherry tomatoes, as there were none at my market.

1. Place pork chops in a shallow glass dish that will hold them in a single layer. Whisk together 1/4 c oil, chiles, lime juice, cumin, 1 tsp salt and red pepper flakes. Pour over pork. Cover & refrigerate. Marinate 6 hr or overnight, turning several times. Bring to room temp 30min before grilling.

2. Prepare the garnish 30 min before grilling. Mix all garnish ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside at room temp.

3. When ready to cook, oil a grill rack & arrange 4-5 in from heat source (we don't usually oil the rack). Prepare grill for a hot fire. Remove pork from marinade and pat dry. Grill until cooked all the way through, 6+ min per side. Arrange chops on a platter. Garnish with sauce, and pass extra sauce separately.

Results: Just as good with the tuna steaks. However, I would cut in half the spicy pepper if I do it again with tuna, as it was WAY spicier than with the pork, even with only half of the marinating time. We had to use the sour cream sauce to cut the spice. But, still, the tuna was a great alternative to the pork. I wonder what would happen if I used chicken? Hmmm....