BS: best way to cook celeriac?

Subject: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 02:46 PM

I bought a lump of this stuff from Sainsbury's and phoned up my sister and asked her how to cook it.

She said - peel it, boil it, and mash it - so I did. However I ended up with a lot of woody bits in my mouth.

Obviously I did something wrong.

All suggestions valued. Please don't use technical terms, as they confuse me.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 02:53 PM

"Because the roots and dirt-filled crevices have to be trimmed away, you'll lose at least a quarter, if not more, of the celeriac during peeling. Usually, a 1 pound celeriac will yield about two cups once peeled and sliced or grated. Brush the celeriac under cold water, since it may still have bits of soil stuck between the roots. 1 pound = 3 cups grated = 1 cup cooked and pureed."

From the www.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: bobad
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:06 PM

It is also nice served as a salad, what the French call remoulade.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:08 PM

So, boil til tender, throw away the water, feed the celeraic to the round file? Cooked 'celery' as a veg has never appealed to me.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Megan L
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:09 PM

It has to be really thickly pealed like a tumshie (Rootabaga) not to be confused with a winibaga which has to be boiled for at least six hours.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:09 PM

Peel it until only the white shows.

Fifty-three recipes here:
Celeriac

Woody- Sometimes I bring home bad vegetables. Woody sweet potatoes, butternut squash, etc., that look fine (to me) on the outside but have hard or woody patches on the inside. You may have got one of these baddies.
Celeriac is not to my liking, so little experience with it. I have used it chopped up in a stew.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:17 PM

winnebaga? Thought that was an RV.

Never heard of tumshees or winnebagas. Very un-American sounding.

Rutabagas are apparently considered edible by some people, but I wouldn't consider ever taking one home. I think they are called swedes here in Canada.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Megan L
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:19 PM

tumshie is a Swede ya numptie hied and boiled and mashed wie tatties its called clapshot or heaven on earth

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:37 PM

Some folks idea of heaven is rather strange...don't you think? (grin....)

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Megan L
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 04:12 PM

Weel lass when a family wis poor and the cauld days o winter bit deep in yer banes a plate o clapshot wie a dod o butter wis warm comfortin stuff. Nae wean frae an Orkney farm ever needed tae go tae bed hungry as lang as there wis tatties an neeps in the yard.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 04:12 PM

A chef's blog on the internet says celeriac tastes like something between celery and a pine tree. A good description!

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 05:40 PM

Simmer the celeriac briefly in whisky, throw away the celeriac and drink the juice.

This works for most vegetables.

Dave (vegetarian since 1977)

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 06:02 PM

What a relief - I read this thread's heading as "best way to cook cleric?"...

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 06:19 PM

Cooking clerics is sadly out of favor. Long pig not served at MacDonald's, even in Fiji.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Feb 08 - 06:43 PM

Possibly get a dog collar on your food in Korea?

G

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 11:43 AM

So who is Sainsburys selling this stuff to? there has got to be some way of cooking it that doesn't involve a mouthfull of woodchip.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Schantieman
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 11:53 AM

Peel thickly
Chop finely
Boil mercilessly
Consign to compost heap and eat something nice instead.

S

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Feb 08 - 02:11 PM

Shantieman's post reminds me of the recipe for a Travis McGee:

Fill glass with chipped ice
Add good quality sherry
Shake, and pour off the sherry
Fill with Bombay gin
Enjoy!

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 07:20 AM

Cut off the earthy and rooty bits

Slice lengthways, about 1/2 inch thick.

Steam, and serve with a cob of butter.

The interesting taste is, IMO, worth the clarting.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: The PA
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 07:32 AM

Peel, scrub, make sure you get ALL the muck out of the roots, cut in to wedges and roast in a good olive oil in the oven, with carrotts (whole), spuds, parsnips, swede, onions and garlic. Scrummy.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 07:49 AM

That should be "crummy" not scrummy.

Considering the nourishing and flavorful veggies out there to eat, I often wonder why bother with crap like this? Its good to try things and I love finding something new but most only get two chances. This one failed miserably. Best if you feed it to your dog if he'll eat it and then eat the dog shit. I've never eaten dogshit myself but there are some things marketed as "food" that are indeed "shit".........this is one.   

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: greg stephens
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 08:05 AM

Well worth the effort of peeling till clean(or pressure washing?). We tried it half and half with mashed potato and it makes a very superior flavoured mash. Excellent stuff.I'd never tried it till recently when weird lumps of stuff started arriving in the organic box. I was agreeably surprised.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: The PA
Date: 20 Feb 08 - 08:23 AM

No sorry, scrummy, perhaps its because we grow our own, organically, we dont buy chemical fed supermarket crap.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Big Phil
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 05:43 AM

Do not attempt to grow, buy or cook it to start with. Problem solved.

Phil*

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Schantieman
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 07:36 AM

Whatever you do with it, iy still tastes like celeriac!

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 08:22 AM

It's lovely stuff! PA's way is the best...peeled, cut into chunks and roasted along with parsnips, carrots and jerusalem artichokes. It also makes great soup, especially with rosemary

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 08:23 AM

Part of the reason for the woodiness is that the supermarkets tend to sell the stuff too big. A local farm shop here sells locally grown celeriacs about a quarter the size of the ones I've seen in the supermarkets and they are much more tender.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 08:29 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeriac

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 09:38 AM

The celeriac you had must have been too old/mature to be woody, WLD. Choose younger ones as much as possible. One of my favourite vegetables, it can be added to many soups for flavour and/or instead of potatoes as thickener. But my favourite recipe is the Greek Pork & Celeriac pot roast:

Ingredients:   
1 1/2 kg pork roast
1 tsp rosemary
2-3 sage leaves
1 cup white wine
2 cups milk
1 cup chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove
2 kg celeriac
1/4 cup olive oil
salt & pepper

Instructions:   
Season the meat with salt and pepper; sauté it in a little olive oil and douse with wine. Add the rosemary, sage, bay leaves, garlic and chicken stock to the pot, and let it cook for 30 minutes. While the meat is cooking, cut the celeriac in golf ball sized chunks. Add them to the pot and finish off cooking slowly (about 2/3 of maximum heat, or just above simmering).

Cut the pork roast in thick slices and serve with the celeriac and plenty of sauce.

If you like, you can substitute half of the celeriac for two good-sized leeks, chopped coarsely.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 09:39 AM

correction: the milk, in the ingredients above, can be omitted, or used to parboil the leeks before adding them to the pot. I don't like it, personally.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 10:29 AM

Marinate it in Cillit Bang for four years, boil it for eighteen hours and then put on your compost heap and open a tin of baked beans.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: KeithofChester
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 12:18 PM

We tried it half and half with mashed potato and it makes a very superior flavoured mash. Excellent stuff.

Indeed that makes a really good mash potato mix.

I have also eaten it as a neat 100% mash all on its own. Just make sure you get rid of all the outside skin and then cube it up, boil thoroughly and then mash as you would spuds.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 12:58 PM

Boil thoroughly- Removes all the vitamins, reduces flavor to mush- typical English cuisine.

Of course for this failed evolutionary attempt in the vegetable kingdom, the best use is the compost bin.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 01:32 PM

I am very pleased to see how many of you diligent organic gardeners maintain compost heaps.

Or are some of you liars just using the expression "compost" to denote disposal?

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: MMario
Date: 21 Feb 08 - 01:44 PM

I've never tried cooking it because whenever it has appeared in the markets it has been obvious that the selection is both too old and way too wasteful...(I hate having to peel 2/3rds of the prodcut I've paid for away!)

BUT....according to various people I've talked to - if you make a celery puree and mix it about 1 part in 4 with mashed potatoe you get about the same effect.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 01:11 PM

very interesting - thanks particularly George and Lynne. the strange thing is that all the celeriacs that sainsbury's sold were that size. I agree - the good bits were quite good. Its just this wood business that I'm not keen on.

Do you think Sainsburys know that they should be selling smaller ones?

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 05:27 PM

I often get celeriac in my weekly veg box and I've grown to love it.
It's good in vegetable soup, but ou don't need much of it.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 06:38 PM

Be very careful cooking it. The acetone and alcohol can cause explosions and if the cops catch you, you're off to prison.

Oh, wait. That's cooking crack.

Well, no real difference.

Subject: RE: BS: best way to cook celeriac?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 10:52 PM

Cook it with celerity and feed it to a celerious celeripedean.

The OED says the last syllable of celeriac has not been explained; "the word does not appear to be known outside of English."