I had never seen and only vaguely heard of celery root before last month. I was in the supermarket in Omaha with my mom and we saw this crazy looking thing on the shelves.
I am always intrigued by new vegetables, but we already had our hands full with the Christmas cooking and everyone having the flu and not eating anyway, so I passed it up for the time being. Then when I returned home I came across it again at my local Figueroa Produce, so I snapped it up and thought I'd figure out what to do with it once I got home. An attack of laziness and outside dining engagements caused the poor root to languish in my fridge for almost a week. Finally last night I found a recipe in my new Frenchie cookbook that called for ingredients that I had on hand (mostly). It was not spectacular, it tasted like a potato that had been doused in celery essence, but the consistency is more like a parsnip. However, I think it would have been crisper and better if it hadn't been left to get rubbery in the refrigerator for so long. Also, there are other recipes that are more ambitious and probably better, but I didn't want to go to the store again... so this is what I got. It went nicely with leftovers of roast chicken and some steamed green beans.
1 pound 10 ounces celery root
(again, I don't have a scale. I had one medium sized celery root. I imagine it weighed about a half pound)
1 quantity
White Sauce
Generous 1/3 cup creme fraîche
(I still don't have this, so I used cream)
Peel and cut the celery root into wedges or thin slices, tossing with lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Place in salted water, then bring to a boil and cook for 10-20 minuts or until tender, depending on the size of the pieces.
(It took about 10 minutes for chunks of one celery root to achieve tenderness)
Prepare the White Sauce, add the creme fraîche and coat the cooked celery root with it.
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