Celery and Celeriac
Lois
Roger Marsh
Fennel
Roger Marsh
Celery and Celeriac
Lois
I was just thinking the other day that celery has sort of passed out of the cooking picture these days.
My grandmother used it a lot, and it really enhanced soup, roast, stuffing and salad.
It used to be so commonly used here that we had special tableware for it. Celery dishes, etc. And it was cut up and thrown into soups and around roasts, etc.
Roger Marsh
Oh, I use celery all the time, Lois; we love it in my family, celeriac too. We had it braised in the oven on Wednesday as one of the accompaniments to a fat roast guinea fowl (pintadeau), preceded by celeriac and potato soup à la crème, with the rest of the celery trimmings in it too. The tall herb variety of celery grows in the garden too (in summer, at any rate) and is valued for its chopped or torn fresh green leaves on salads, in casseroles and for a variety of purposes.
Celeriac is that big heavy ugly knobbly vegetable with hard white to cream-ish coloured flesh; it tastes deliciously like celery but has an entirely different crunchy texture when sliced and eaten raw, can be steamed to a softer texture. We get it easily in England. It is often shredded and served raw as a salad in France. The Germans and Dutch like it too, served up raw in a sort of mayonnaise sauce. It's good.
I have a great recipe for pheasant braised with celery (pheasant is always a treat at this time of year, about November - February, can't quite remember what the open season is but it will end soon; better get some for the freezer) with, at the end, a sauce made from the casserole juices with thick cream and an egg yolk, to be poured over it before serving or after.
So - celery is well and truly alive chez moi in my 2 haunts of Salisbury and Paris.
Fennel
Roger Marsh
Root fennel, or Florence fennel, delicious too. They are far more bulbous in shape than celery. Fennel's great raw in salads, or lightly steamed until about half-cooked, then wrapped in thin-sliced raw ham (Parma-type, but you can use a cheaper variant such as Jambon d'Auvergne, Black Forest Ham or a lesser Italian or Spanish variety), then a cheese sauce poured over (Mornay-type, a Béchamel with grated Parmesan cheese added, or a Cheddar type) then baked in a medium oven for about half an hour, just until the sauce is lightly browned on top. That recipe works well too with what we here in England call chicory but the French call endive (the word chicory in French is an entirely different thing). Treat them exactly as you would the fennel recipe; in fact, I think I was first served that by a friend in France as the chicory / endive version then adapted it myself for Florence fennel. You can cook and serve both together, of course.
If you try the Florence fennel recipe, prepare smaller ones whole, split larger ones lengthwise before starting but chicory/endives whole.
Lois
Roger Marsh
Fennel
Roger Marsh
Celery and Celeriac
Lois
I was just thinking the other day that celery has sort of passed out of the cooking picture these days.
My grandmother used it a lot, and it really enhanced soup, roast, stuffing and salad.
It used to be so commonly used here that we had special tableware for it. Celery dishes, etc. And it was cut up and thrown into soups and around roasts, etc.
Roger Marsh
Oh, I use celery all the time, Lois; we love it in my family, celeriac too. We had it braised in the oven on Wednesday as one of the accompaniments to a fat roast guinea fowl (pintadeau), preceded by celeriac and potato soup à la crème, with the rest of the celery trimmings in it too. The tall herb variety of celery grows in the garden too (in summer, at any rate) and is valued for its chopped or torn fresh green leaves on salads, in casseroles and for a variety of purposes.
Celeriac is that big heavy ugly knobbly vegetable with hard white to cream-ish coloured flesh; it tastes deliciously like celery but has an entirely different crunchy texture when sliced and eaten raw, can be steamed to a softer texture. We get it easily in England. It is often shredded and served raw as a salad in France. The Germans and Dutch like it too, served up raw in a sort of mayonnaise sauce. It's good.
I have a great recipe for pheasant braised with celery (pheasant is always a treat at this time of year, about November - February, can't quite remember what the open season is but it will end soon; better get some for the freezer) with, at the end, a sauce made from the casserole juices with thick cream and an egg yolk, to be poured over it before serving or after.
So - celery is well and truly alive chez moi in my 2 haunts of Salisbury and Paris.
Fennel
Roger Marsh
Root fennel, or Florence fennel, delicious too. They are far more bulbous in shape than celery. Fennel's great raw in salads, or lightly steamed until about half-cooked, then wrapped in thin-sliced raw ham (Parma-type, but you can use a cheaper variant such as Jambon d'Auvergne, Black Forest Ham or a lesser Italian or Spanish variety), then a cheese sauce poured over (Mornay-type, a Béchamel with grated Parmesan cheese added, or a Cheddar type) then baked in a medium oven for about half an hour, just until the sauce is lightly browned on top. That recipe works well too with what we here in England call chicory but the French call endive (the word chicory in French is an entirely different thing). Treat them exactly as you would the fennel recipe; in fact, I think I was first served that by a friend in France as the chicory / endive version then adapted it myself for Florence fennel. You can cook and serve both together, of course.
If you try the Florence fennel recipe, prepare smaller ones whole, split larger ones lengthwise before starting but chicory/endives whole.