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Celeriac
Not every housewife knows celeriac, but it is well worth adding to her list of vegetable acquaintances. It is a variety of celery grown for its turnip-like root instead of for the blanched stalks. The flavor is similar to that of celery. It is delicious served in various sauces or as a salad. To prepare celeriac, trim off the tops, wash and pare the bulb, drop it into boiling water and cook about one-half hour, or until tender. Add the salt just before cooking is completed. It may then be prepared as stewed celery or scalloped celery with cheese.
The instructions are sound but assume a smaller root than most markets sell today, and they leave the cooking size unstated. A few adjustments make the timing reliable.
- Size and cutSupermarket celeriac often runs 1 to 2 lb per bulb; the recipe does not say what size root it has in mind. Half an hour suits a whole small root; peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes it will be tender in 12 to 15 minutes.
- PeelingThe skin is knobbly and hides pockets of grit and rootlets. Slice off the top and base to make flat ends, stand the bulb up, and cut the skin away in strips with a knife rather than a peeler.
- BrowningCut surfaces discolor within minutes. Drop the pieces into water with a squeeze of lemon or a spoonful of vinegar as you work, and add a little acid to the cooking water to keep the flesh pale.
- Salting at the endThe direction to salt just before the cooking finishes is common in books of this kind, though no reason is given here. Salting the water from the start seasons the flesh better and does no harm.
- Testing donenessCeleriac goes from firm to collapsing quickly. A knife tip should meet no resistance but the cube should still hold its shape; overcooked, it turns watery and stringy at the core.
- The suggested finishes"Stewed celery" and "scalloped celery with cheese" point to the book's own recipes for those dishes: broadly, the cooked vegetable simmered briefly in a thin white sauce, and layered with white sauce and grated cheese, crumbed and baked until browned. No oven temperature is given here.
- Raw for saladFor the salad the text mentions, skip the boiling entirely. Cut the peeled root into fine matchsticks, dress at once with lemon and mustard mayonnaise, and let it soften for half an hour.
- YieldOne 1 1/2 lb bulb, peeled, gives roughly 1 lb of trimmed flesh and serves four as a side dish.