Tonight we came home fairly late from a day at the lake.  It’s been swelteringly hot lately and the last thing I wanted to do was cook dinner, especially this late.  But the boys had been eating so much pizza lately at birthday parties and 4th of July events, that I just couldn’t not cook.  Plus I had picked up my favorite fish, Red Snapper, today and I wanted to eat it right away; the fresher the better.   We’d gotten our CSA bin on the way home from the beach and inside was another purple kohlrabi, some gorgeous rainbow chard and new potatoes that I knew I would cook up with the Snapper. I put the potatoes on to boil in their jackets, cut up and steamed the chard and tried to figure out the best way to handle the kohlrabi. 

My German father had loved kohlrabi and we had it occasionally when I was a child.  I think he even grew it.  But, I don’t recall liking it very much. My family usually added it to a family favorite stew-like cabbage and beef soup called Eintopf. I ran into a German au pair the other day and I asked her if she ever made kohlrabi.  She did.  She said she usually “cooked” it and served it with Hollandaise.  Hollandaise sauce is not going to happen in my kitchen in the summer unless it’s going over an egg, ham and English muffin for brunch.  And that would normally be served to me, not me cooking it.  Anyway, “How do you normally “cook” it, do you boil it, bake it, roast it…?” She said, “Boil it.”  So I did.  I put them (two bulbs) on to boil with the skin on but cut it in half to speed up the cooking time; it was late, remember?

On to the next step.  Mango Salsa.  The mango wasn’t the best, ripest one ever, but the best the store had to offer.  I defrosted some I had in freezer for smoothies and added it to it, so it ended up just fine.   

Finally got to the Snapper.  I ran my finger tips along the filet and noticed it had a few bones it so I pulled them out using a bone puller (kind of like tweezers). Then I scored the skin with a sharp knife. That way, when you flip over the fish onto its skin side, it won’t curl so much.  In a hot pan with minimal canola oil I put the flesh side down first.  When it was nice and golden brown, I flipped it over and put the pan into the preheated oven (350F).  (It only takes a few more minutes in there until it’s done.)

I could then finish off the potatoes, chard and kohlrabi.  I used the already-melted-from-the-stifling-heat butter and put them with all of them and a little sea salt and pepper.  Less is more or if you find something that works stick with it, I guess.  I took the outer layer of skin off the kohlrabi and cut them into smaller pieces before adding the butter and heating them.

And we were sitting down to eat just over 35 minutes after I started. The kids loved it!  Well, my two eldest loved the kohlrabi and the youngest at first refused to try it and when he did he said, “Yuck.”  I can’t win them all.  My middle son said the kohlrabi tasted like cauliflower, one of his favorite veggies.  All did love the Snapper (although theirs was sans salsa), chard and potatoes.  I’m glad I made it, because I loved it too and my boys tried a new vegetable with fairly good results. 

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