Two More Celeriac Recipes

I hope you are in the mood for celeriac/kereviz because that's on the menu today!

I was going through my old 2010 diary the other day looking for a number when my glance fell upon a recipe for Spiced Celeriac with Lemon that I must have jotted down in extremis judging by the state of the scribble. I looked at it more closely and rather alarmingly had no recollection whatsoever of who had given it to me or when let alone where so if you recognize it as YOURS, do let me know because I’ve made it and am passing it on! That lemon tang and spicy flavour combine beautifully to make an unusual delicious meze.

Spiced Celeriac with Lemon

Ingredients

1 large celeriac/kereviz

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 ½ lemons

Paprika, pepper, and cinnamon

Olive oil for frying

100 ml/ half a cup water

Method

·         Peel and cut the celeriac into long, thin sticks (julienne).

·         Heat 3 tbsps olive oil in a pan and gently fry for about 15 minutes till slightly browned.

·         Sprinkle with paprika, pepper, and cinnamon. Stir in zest of 1 lemon, the juice of 1 ½ lemons and the water and simmer for about 10 minutes.

·         Arrange decoratively in a shallow dish and serve at room temperature.

 Lovely warming Celeriac Soup is my second recipe: I made it this morning.

This time I had been riffling through Refika’s book again when I saw a Celeriac Soup recipe. Ah, I thought but when I looked closer I saw that it was a ringer for My Colourful Winter Vegetable Soup with the addition of 2 kereviz.

The other ingredients are the usual winter ones ie 1 potato, 1 onion, 1 carrot, plus those 2 celeriacs which I simply  peeled and chopped up, put in a saucepan, covered with cold water and gently boiled for about 15 minutes. I added 1 chicken stock cube.  No oil or butter in this one.  In order to make it  a bit different, I thought I would change the consistency. Out came my trusty stick blender and I blitzed all the cooked vegetables in the saucepan. Without any additions of flour or other thickening agents, it is the perfect velvety consistency with an appealing creamy colour.

 I have just had it for lunch with a wedge of lemon on the side and a sprinkle of flaked red pepper. If this was a cookery book, it would say 'serve with crusty bread'. I didn't have any but I can show you a picture of great crusty bread:

warm and fragrant

I took these photos when I recently visited Şirince (pron: shi/rin/jay), an old village originally inhabited by Greeks very near to Selçuk.  Of course I couldn't resist buying one of these loaves! Note their unusual shape. The bread was actually much better toasted than fresh and survived the flight back to Istanbul, vying for space with my washbag in my case!



irresistible



If you like celeriac, you can also check  two of my previous posts: Celeriac Carpaccio  and  the more traditional Zeytinyağlı Kereviz/ Celeriac in Olive Oil .

Afiyet Olsun!

Celeriac Carpaccio

This is what happens when a young Turkish cook applies her culinary creativity to the traditional zeytinyağlı kereviz /celeriac meze and successfully gives it a modern twist. Traditionalists, beware!



celeriac carpaccio



Kereviz, kereviz/ celeriac, celeriac, carrots, potatoes and cabbage. And pumpkin.  And more of the same. A winter market in the heart of Istanbul.

 Monday morning in my area of Fenerbahçe means market day so routine being routine, off  I went.  I didn't waste time: straight to ‘my’ stall, carefully avoiding what used to be ‘my’ stall.  I thought everything was a bit pricey, I found eg little cucumbers at 5TL per kilo which is £2. That’s a lot to my mind. But I got them for 4TL. That’s what being a regular customer does for you. I like to think they give me a break sometimes!

Luckily I like vegetables including all the winter ones. The celeriac or kereviz looked attractive despite their odd shape:  fresh, white and firm. I had this new recipe in mind so bought 2 big ones. They are obviously a popular vegetable as the vast pile was already on the wane and it was only 9.30. This recipe is from my young friend Refika Birgül’s book Cooking New Istanbul Style. The recipes sometimes leave a lot to be desired in terms of clarity but they make up for it in sheer joy and ebullience.

Ingredients

Serves 6

2 large celeriacs or 3 medium

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1 orange* magic ingredient

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, sliced thinly

1 dessert spoon brown sugar

½ lemon

Rocket leaves, washed and dried

Parmesan cheese, grated

2 tsp salt

6 tbsp olive oil

Coarse black pepper

A little grated nutmeg

1 tbsp pine nuts

Method

·         Pour the olive oil into a wide pan and gently heat. Put the chopped onion, garlic, carrot and pine nuts into the pan and gently saute till softened. Cut the celeriacs into thin rounds (3-4mm), add to the pan and saute a couple of minutes. Halve the orange and squeeze. Squeeze the lemon half. Pour the juice of both onto the celeriacs. Add sugar and salt.

ingredients ready to go

the sliced kereviz

·         Pour 1 ½ cups boiling water over the contents of pan, cover, and cook gently for 15 mins. Let cool in pan.

To serve:

Pile the rocket  in the centre of your serving dish and arrange the slices of celeriac decoratively around it. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and a little nutmeg. Grind some coarse black pepper over the assembled dish and add a little olive oil to the rocket.

The celeriac can also be arranged on individual dishes if you prefer.

Comments

So what's the verdict? I liked this recipe as it is an original take on the same old ingredients and the standard zeytinyağlı kereviz recipe. The addition of pine nuts was innovative, the parmesan cheese modern, and the orange juice, although not a new idea, added to the taste. The lemon juice helps to keep the celeriac from discolouring.

Give it a try and let me know.

By the way, you will see a new widget  - I think that's the correct term - right below this: you can now print off the recipe simply by clicking on it. This is thanks to Daughter No 2 who declared she was tired of lugging her laptop into the kitchen each time she needed a recipe.

And while I am at it, there is a second new widget that I hope will be helpful: on the right of the blog you will see Get Your Recipe Updates via Email and a place to put your email address.  Do this, click OK, and the posts will automatically be sent to your email.  You won't have to go to the website every time.

 Hope that helps! Enjoy!

Seasonal Celeriac: a Meze

Celeriac is such an odd looking vegetable, round and knobbly, with  a delicate taste and a powerful smell which tends to linger in a not unpleasant fashion.  When I first set eyes on it, I had no idea what on earth it was,  let alone what to do with it as we certainly never had it at home when I was growing up. Apparently it was originally classified as a herb, full of vitamins and mineral salts, and highly valued for its medicinal properties, but over the centuries, it has taken two very distinctive forms through selected breeding: one is what we know as celery, with frondy leaves and crunchy stalks, which hardly exists here; and the other is commonly known as a root vegetable like the carrot or turnip although it is actually a corm, the celeriac. In Turkish there is only word for both varieties: kereviz.  At this time of year, it is most commonly used in this olive oil dish but can also be grated into salads either on its own or with carrots, used to flavour soups,  or made into gratins and delicious creamy mashes with potatoes.  I had it in my head to look out for them at my weekly market yesterday as despite the warm sun, autumn is in the air: I was not disappointed. There they were, along with mountains of cabbages and cauliflowers, pumpkins and pomegranates, heralds of the colder months which lie ahead.

Ingredients for Zeytinyağlı Kereviz/Celeriac in Olive Oil

Serves  8

4 medium celeriac

2 carrots

2 medium potatoes

1 onion

3 sugar lumps

¼ cup olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

1 cup hot water

1 gently heaped tbsp salt

Method

1.       Put the juice of half the lemon and 2 cups of water into a pyrex bowl.  Trim and peel the celeriac, cut into rounds a little thinner than your finger, halve these, and place in the bowl. Trim and scrape the carrots, then using a fork, make a pattern as in the picture. Peel and cube the potatoes. Peel and chop the onion quite finely. Wash all of them and put into the acidulated water along with the celeriac so that none of them discolour.

preparing the carrots

the chopped vegetables and the kereviz in the lemon water



2.       Drain all the vegetables and put them in a wide pan along with the salt, sugar, remaining lemon juice, olive oil, and 1 cup of hot water. Cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for 40 minutes till the vegetables are soft.

everything is here



3.       Leave to cool in the pan before transferring to a serving dish.

zeytinyağlı kereviz

Traditionally this kereviz dish is eaten as a second course, after a hot dish, but it also makes a fine starter which is easier carefully served with a slotted spoon onto individual plates.  A little of the cooking liquid can be spooned over each.

Tips

§  The lemon and water is to keep the peeled kereviz white so don’t leave them exposed to the air too long as they will turn an unappetising brown!

§  I did prepare the carrots with the fork as required in this particular recipe by Alev Kaman in Modern Türk Mutfağı , but it is certainly not essential. They can simply be sliced in thin rounds or on the diagonal.

§  As with many zeytinyağlı dishes, I always feel the urge to grind some pepper over the finished dish, for aesthetics as much as anything. However, this is not part of Turkish cooking. In traditional restaurants one doesn’t find pepper mills: these are part and parcel of the upmarket places offering meals with a western twist, which is also why for a very long time it was nigh on impossible to find a decent pepper mill here!



irresistible market bouquets!