Celeriac, Fennel, Carrot and Nappa Cabbage Slaw

Recently we were invited to a “slider” party. The invitation pictured one of those garden slides that you soak with the garden hose and take a running leap onto it and slide all the way down. But it wasn’t a party like that. We’re talking food sliders! You know, the tiny little sandwiches or burgers that you generally have a few of. The BBQ was hosted by that Titanic, Black and White and Bond party couple and it was the same five couples. Each couple was charged with bringing their own favourite slider for dinner. Yep, that meant we all ate five (FIVE) mini burgers! But it was great fun.

I figured there would be a good selection of burgers (chicken, turkey and beef) so I wanted something a wee bit different; I made our Whiskey BBQ Pulled Pork (previously posted here) with a celeriac, fennel and cabbage slaw. I was inspired by my friend Sissi over at With a Glass when she presented us with her own version of a fennel slaw with an ouzo mayonnaise, but sadly I happened to mention my intentions to JT and he gave me that look; you see, he likes fennel and he likes ouzo but felt that the two together might be a little too strong. I begged to differ but some things are not worth arguing about, so I kept the fennel and made a new dressing for it. It was a tasty slaw and it went very well with the pulled pork. I omitted the mayonnaise from this slaw as we were dining al fresco and I wasn’t sure how long the food would sit outdoors in the heat and sun. The lemon juice and zest were added to mimic the tangy flavour of mayo.

It was creamy without being heavy.

Makes about 10 cups of slaw but it depends on how large your vegetables are.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized celeriac
• 1 large carrot
• 1 medium sized fennel
• 1 small head Nappa cabbage
• 3/4 cup greek yogurt
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2-4 tbsp honey
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Reserve 6-8 large cabbage leaves for presentation.
2. Grate the celeriac, carrot, fennel and cabbage using a fine grater, mix well. Set aside.
3. Combine the yogurt, lemon juice, zest and honey and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Mix the dressing with the slaw and serve chilled on a flat plate with the leaves spread around to hold the slaw.

Such a cute little slider, don’t you think?

I made tiny little pretzel buns for the pulled pork sliders.

Read Full Post »

Scalloped Potatoes with Celeriac

We had JTs family for Easter brunch again this year and I wanted to change it up a bit and serve some different sides. I recently started following John over at Kitchen Riffs and he posted a fantastic update to the traditional scalloped potato dish…he added celery root! Can you believe it? This change was very appealing to me because although scalloped potatoes are not considered healthy, this version is slightly healthier than the traditional version. While potatoes have almost 1 calorie per gram, and a glycemic load of 29, celery root has 0.4 calories per gram with a glycemic load of 6! While it may not make this a healthy dish, it does help mitigate some of the other not-quite-so-healthy ingredients in this dish.

Our Easter Table

I was also inspired to add some thyme to this dish as I was preparing the béchamel sauce and it was fantastic; the thyme really played into the celeriac flavours beautifully. The celeriac also made this dish a lot less starchy than one made exclusively with potatoes. I’m definitely keeping this version for future family dinners.

A warm, bubbly cheese crusted scalloped potato and celeriac

The original recipe came from my trusty Five Roses Cookbook which is now falling apart at the seams, but that’s OK, it looks well-loved!

The thyme flavour with the celeriac is a pleasant surprise.

Scalloped Potatoes with Cereriac

Serves 10-12 small servings

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized potatoes (Yukon Gold work very well), peeled and sliced very thinly
• 1 small celeriac (celery root), peeled and sliced very thinly
• 1/2 Vialia onion, sliced very thinly
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 cups skim milk
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme, plus one sprig for garnish
• 1/2 cup grated yellow cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare an oven-proof baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (I like to use one pretty enough to serve from and that way I’m not messing around plating the dish). Preheat the oven to 190°C (350°F).
2. Melt the butter in a sauce pan over low heat, increase the heat a little and add the flour, mixing well to combine. Cook this mixture for a few minutes making sure not to burn it. Slowly add the milk into the cooked flour and whisk to combine and remove all lumps. Add the chopped thyme and salt and whisk well; cook the béchamel until thick (should still be pourable).
3. Beginning with the potatoes, layer a single layer on the bottom of the prepared baking dish and cover the bottom fully. Next layer the onions over the potatoes and then the celery root. Cover these three layers with the thyme béchamel sauce. Repeat the layering process with the béchamel sauce until you have used up all of the vegetables, leaving a small amount of béchamel to pour over the very top of the layers.
4. Place the baking dish onto a cookie sheet (you’ll thank me later) and sprinkle the cheddar over the béchamel. Bake uncovered for 1 hour 30 minutes or until a cake tester flows into the potato, celery root easily. Serve hot.

 Notes:

• Béchamel thickens as it bakes so don’t worry if you feel your béchamel is runny, it will be fine made with the proportions in this recipe.
• This dish may be made in advance, cooled and refrigerated. Reheat with additional cheese (broiling may be necessary).
• When you reheat, make sure the béchamel bubbles up.

A traditional dish with a new angle!

This is using Potato and Celeriac.

Potato and Celeriac, yielded about 12 portions for the dish I used.

Read Full Post »

Celeriac Velouté (or soup)

This is a wonderfully creamy soup that has no cream in it. The Hungarians know only celery root, they really don’t eat the stalks like we do (the stalks are an amazing snack, I ALWAYS keep some washed in a sealed container in the fridge for snacking. I once read that it takes more calories to eat one that the calories in the stalk!). I do add a bit of Olive Oil (EVOO) to the soup and I used butter to toast the croutons, but there is no other fat in this dish.

It’s creamy and rich without a drop of cream!

Celeriac Velouté

Serves 4 (one cup portions)

Ingredients:

• 1 celery root, cleaned, peeled and cut into relatively equal cubes.
• 1/2 a large sweet onion, cut into quarters
• 1 small head of garlic, bottom chopped off and excess skin removed.
• 3 tbsp EVOO
• Vegetable stock
• Salt
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Left over onion confit focaccia cut into diamond shapes
• 1 tbsp butter
• sea salt

Directions:

1. Spray a large cookie sheet with non-stick spray and distribute the onion and celeriac cubes evenly. Roast in a pre-heated oven set at 350°F until soft.
2. Add the EVOO to a small ramekin and place the garlic cut side down. Salt with sea salt. Cover with aluminum foil and bake with the rest of the vegetables until soft.
3. In a large pyrex bowl, add the cooked vegetables with the olive oil from the roasted garlic, and squeeze the roasted garlic into the same bowl. Add vegetable stock and purée with your immersion blender until very smooth. Press through a fine sieve to make sure your soup is very creamy.
4. Melt the butter in a small frying pan and toast the focaccia so that it is crispy on all sides.
5. Reheat the soup to serve; pour into your rimmed soup bowls, garnish with the focaccia toasts and enjoy.

Read Full Post »

Celeriac and Potato “Mash”

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad
(today would have been their 52nd anniversary)

We don’t often buy potatoes; it’s not because I don’t like them, I do, but they are carbs and I would prefer to eat other vegetables with less carbs and a lower glycemic index. But I bought two medium sized potatoes two weeks ago and only used one for a recipe. I had that potato sitting on my counter for another week before I figured out what to do with it.

I also had a 1/2 celeriac (celery root) in the vegetable crisper just waiting to get brown and tossed so I decided to take my celeriac cauliflower “mash” and change it up a bit with the potato. Since I didn’t have a head of cauliflower either I just made Celeriac Potato Mash. Now I love roasting vegetables because it really brings out the sweetness, so I simply roasted the celeriac (and a few cloves of garlic), boiled the potatoes and presto; what a “mash” this turned out to be! LOVE it!

Celeriac has fewer calories and carbohydrates than a potato as well, it is lower on the glycemic index than a potato so keeping the celeriac ratio higher than the potato was the right decision for me. The potato adds creaminess that you expect from mashed potatoes. This is a bit more labourious than normal mashed potatoes, but I promise you it is worth it. I hope you enjoy it. To see a whole mess of mashed potatoes head on over to Greg’s blog, he has gone all out with this savoury dish.

The star of this photo is the mash, not the pork. The pork is a Primadonna!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 medium yukon gold potato, peeled and diced
• 1 medium celeriac, peeled and diced
• 4 medium cloves of garlic, peeled to the outer skin
• 2-4 tbsp EVOO
• salt to taste
• chicken stock or milk or cream, depending on how healthy you wish to make it.

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 400° F. Spread the celeriac evenly on the pan and very lightly coat with olive oil and salt.
2. Put garlic cloves into a small ramekin and add about a finger’s depth of EVOO and salt.
3. Bake the celeriac and garlic until both are fork tender. About 30-40 minutes into the roasting, add about 1/2 cup of water to the celeriac roasting pan and give the celeriac a good stir. When the water evaporates, they should be fork tender (if not, then add another 1/2 cup of water and repeat until fork tender)
4. While the celeriac is baking, in a large stock pot add enough water to cover the potatoes entirely, salt generously. Cook until they are fork tender.
5. Drain potatoes and allow to sit for a minute so that all of the water evaporates. Either rice with a potato ricer or mash gently with a fork (you don’t want to develop the starches so for heavens sake, don’t blend this with an immersion blender). Don’t add any liquid as the celeriac mash will be a touch wetter than necessary and we’ll need the potato on the dryer side. Set aside
6. When the celeriac is fork tender, remove from the pan into the immersion blender container, squeeze out the roasted garlic, pour in the oil from roasting the garlic and blend. Blend until it is smooth, smooth, smooth, adding chicken stock, milk or cream to achieve a mashed potato consistency. Celeriac doesn’t have the same level of starch as the potato so this is the only way you will get it smooth. Push through a fine sieve and fold the mashed potatoes into the mix. Keep warm over a bain marie. Serve with the most amazing Fig Stuffed Pork Tenderloin ever (link won’t be active until Nov 21).

Read Full Post »