Sunday, January 31, 2010

Celeriac Recipes

We were flirting in the kitchen by showing off our knowledge of culinary terms the other day. ("You want to make soup, huh? How about we make a mirepoix?") After a digression into French pronunciation, we decided to go ahead with the soup/mirepoix plan, but we didn't have any celery. We did, however, have this.

Celeriac, or celery root, comes from a plant similar to regular celery. Can you use it as a direct substitute for celery in a soup base? I don't know, but we did, which used up one of the four we got in our box this week.

What to do with the rest?

Puree is the most basic recipe: Alton Brown makes a straight-up celeriac puree that is ... pretty much just celeriac. Gourmet adds apples. EatingWell makes it with parsnips and potatoes.

Soup is a common use: Tiny Urban Kitchen has a tasty-looking celeriac-apple-potato soup recipe. FatFree Vegan Kitchen makes a (fat-free vegan) creamy celeriac soup.

NPR calls celeriac "the unsung frog prince of winter vegetables" and suggests a recipe for french-fried celeriac. Less charitably, Gordon Ramsay notes -- with his soup, dauphinoise, and curry recipes -- that "If there was a competition for the world’s ugliest vegetable, celeriac would take first place every time."

(I'm not actually sure what a dauphinoise is, but you can bet I'll be researching it -- and the pronunciation -- for our next go-round in the kitchen. Gourmet does a gratin with potato and Stilton, which I suspect is pretty much the same thing as a dauphinoise.)

What are you making with yours?

4 comments:

  1. Oh, that's a lovely photo of the root. Since I "discovered" celeriac (it was sitting there patiently waiting for me for a long time), I'll never bother making plain old mashed potatoes again. Celery root puree is delicious!

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  2. Made warm cole slaw tonight with the cabbage and apples from today's farm share. Really simple and super yummy. Next up - Barley and Root Vegetable soup. Root vegetables include celeriac, rutabaga, parsnips and carrots.

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  3. Thanks, Kim! I loved that there was some green in it that was the same green as our house. Looking forward to exploring your site more.

    Anon, would love to hear your warm coleslaw recipe. We always have trouble getting excited about cabbage.

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  4. Celeriac remoulade! Matchstick it, raw, and find a remoulade sauce recipe that sounds good... I love one with capers in it, but didn't have any so threw in some chili powder for a spicy variation. With enough sauce on the celeriac, makes a great self-dressing salad when introduced to some greens.

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