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!