Photo by Janet for her 2012 recipe for curry. She has other celeriac recipes here. I first published this post at 8:07pm on 11/24/14 and updated it for formatting at 11:20am on 11/26.
The November 24 (and last 2014) farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include celeriac, kale, lettuce mix, butternut squash and napa cabbage, oh my! (Sally and Jason will be at the Blacksburg Farmers Market in December on the 6th, 13th and 20th with root veggies, meats, some greens and winter squash. They'll be back there in April and the 2015 farm share sign up will probably open in December.)
Today's recipe features celeriac. Who can resist something that roasts or pickles so well and tastes yummy raw, something like a cross between celery and parsley.
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By day, Janet is a physician in Toronto, after living for a year in Houston, Texas. By night, she's a food blogger and photographer at The Taste Space and also shares recipes with Kahakai Kitchen.
She made the above curry with pumpkin, but after all, that's just one type of winter squash and this week we'll be getting butternuts. It turns out she adapted her recipe from one by Sarah Breton, who used squash. Here's my remake of her remake...
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Serves 6
1. In a countertop convection or conventional oven (on a cookie sheet), roast veggies for 1/2 hour and let cool enough to prep:
1 large onion
1 carrot
1 lb celeriac
4 garlic cloves
1.5 lb pumpkin or butternut squash
2. While veggies are roasting, cover 1 cup of dried red lentils with water and bring to boil. Cover with lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Rinse well , cover with fresh water plus 1 cup, cover with lid and back to boil and and let sit.
3. In a separate pot, do the same for 2 cups of raw quinoa.
4. Peel veggies and cut into cubes. Finely chop two T fresh ginger root.
5. Chiffonade kale, keeping stems separate.
6. In the bottom of a steamer pot, combine veggies, ginger, lentils, and the following spices:
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t tumeric
1/4 t dry mustard
1/2 t gound fenugreek seeds
1/4 t ground cinamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground cardomon
7. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and steam first the stems, and then the leaves of the kale until tender, but bright green. Add kale to curry.
8. Serve over quinoa (or cooked yellow rice) and garnish with celery leaves or cilantro leaves.
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If you're not going to make this recipe tomorrow, refrigerate the celery root in an unsealed plastic bag for up to 2 or 3 weeks. To prepare, trim the leaves (if present) and root end. Scrub well. You can roast it to make it easier to remove the skin and any brown bits. If you’re using it raw, peel quite thickly and place cut the pieces in water with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent discoloration.
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"British chef" (other than for all those exquisite cream and fruit pastries) may sound like an oxymoron, until you think about Nigella Lawson. As of today, I'm adding Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I came upon his feature at The Guardian when I was looking for celeriac recipes. Just take a look at this salad he composed. Since we don't have endive in this week's farm share, think about a chiffonade of kale with cashews (or your favorite nut) and orange or apple slices.
Fearnley-Whittingstall has been "championing food integrity + consumption of local, seasonal produce since 1998" River Cottage on the Dorset/Devon border and he LOVES celeriac. He writes, as compared to a potato, it's
even more unprepossessing, with knobbly, knotted looks that only a mother could love – or a cook who has unearthed its inner beauty. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that celeriac might just be my favourite root of all time. It's nothing less than a winter wonder.
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Want more celeriac recipes? Here are some that look yummy:
- Epicurious.com
- Chef Jamie Oliver
- BBC's Good Food
- Martha Stewart
- Eating Well
- The Food Network
- Chow
- Fait Maison
- Blue Apron
- Cooks by Books (Peggy Klineman's Book Club Blog)
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BTW, did anyone make it to the farm November 21 for the final 2014 farm stand which included a meat show case? Besides the veggies, there was a fresh supply of goat and pork cuts, sausages, fresh chicken, duck eggs, and more, along with cooking tips.
If you didn't make it, you missed some good eating. I heard a lot of folks say they had no room for dinner after stopping in for samples. (My own black bean and rice dinner had to wait until the next day.)
Here's the scoop on this years samples, as best as I can remember (sorry I didn't take notes):
- goat sausage congee and goat bone broth from Hoof Harted Farm
- a variety of ham steaks (my fav was Lisa's lemon rosemary) from Ben's pastured pig, plus his cracklings and Lisa's spinach and ground pork fritatta
- hard boiled eggs and Lisa's squash or pumpkin curd featuring Sally's ducks
- gizzard stew, a brined roast and a roast with fennel from Sally's Freedom Ranger chickens.
