Saturday, February 27, 2010

Celery-psychedeliac (root)

Before getting into this post, I have to apologize for the long hiatus. Hopefully it won't happen again. We Clams haven't stopped eating, lest anyone worry. In fact, we may have moved up, just slightly, in the culinary world.

In Clams-related news, esteemed Clam Brett Daniels is now officially in culinary school. The rest of our lives are better as a vicarious result. He has lots of cooking homework, so dinner get-togethers are becoming an even more frequent occurrence than they were previously. The two of us have recently been getting into cooking with celeriac (aka celery root) when we can get our hands on it.

My local grocery store, Tony's Finer Foods, is the kind of place that caters to a largely latino clientele. This means that the produce section tends to include a wide variety of root vegetables that I have no experience cooking with. Celeriac appears to be right at home in this crowd, although, to my knowledge it isn't a classic ingredient in latino cuisines. What I do know, is that it kind of looks like a knobby, weird coconut. Or something. See for yourself:



Flavor-wise, it's really unique. Very distinctive tasting - there's an unmistakable celery note, but it's also nutty and rich.

The Clams got together recently for a weeknight dinner, and Brett had some celeriac on hand. While Brett dealt with the chicken he was roasting in his cast iron skillet, I got to work making a celeriac mash. I was a bit tentative, and kept things simple. After peeling and chopping the celeriac and a couple of russet potatoes, I boiled them until they were fork-tender. After that, I mashed them with butter and whole milk, and seasoned them with white pepper and sea salt.
The end result was quite good, but left me wanting to work with celeriac again in a slightly more experimental context.

Which leads me to brunch this morning. I used a celery root I had lying around to make a gratin, and I'd say it was a good step forward.

RECIPE: Celery-psychedeliac Gratin
**I used Anthony Bourdain's Gratin Dauphinois recipe as a jumping-off point for this.

1 celeriac, about 1 pound
4-5 small yukon gold potatoes
1 medium leek
1 fresh sprig each, thyme, rosemary, flat leaf parsley
2 cups heavy cream
5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
salt
pepper (ideally white, but black works too)
a dash or two of nutmeg
small slice of butter
grated cheese of your choice - (I used fontinella, but I could see gruyere or another deep-flavored white cheese working well)

Preheat oven to 350. Peel celeriac with a knife, slice it and the potatoes thin (1/2 to 1/4 of an inch). Place these in a large pot or dutch oven with the cream, add 4 of the garlic gloves and the herbs. Chop off the green leaves of the leek, and slice the remaining white part thinly. Add sliced leek to the mixture with the celeriac. Bring the cream up to a simmer. Add nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. While the mixture simmers, take the last garlic clove and use it to rub the interior of a gratin dish or an 8x8 baking dish. After you've given it a good coating of garlic, use the butter to evenly grease the dish. After simmering, discard the herbs and garlic from the cream mixture. Pour the mixture into the baking dish, spread evenly, and top with a thin layer of grated cheese. Season with a bit more salt and pepper if you want. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the cheese has turned a nice golden brown.

I served this with eggs, bacon, and sourdough toast. But it would definitely be a good side dish for any number of dinners.





2 comments:

  1. Does it taste like celery?
    I am interested in trying it!

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  2. it's funny, because it SMELLS alot like celery, but the actual taste is more subtle. There's definitely something celery-like there, but it's still its own thing. I realize that this explanation is terrible, but you should definitely give it a try, I'm guessing you'll enjoy it!

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