How to cook a ball
A recipe for Roast celeriac soup with confitted garlic cream
It may be because of how it looks - like a knobbly ball that’s been kicked about a bit in a chalky field - or because it is dauntingly large, but celeriac doesn’t seem to be much revered.
The French make the most of it in céleri remoulade, a dish of finely julienned celeriac enrobed in a lemony, mustardy mayonnaise which is surely on no-one’s Hate List - though after the objections to last week's celery which jammed my email inbox, who can say. But celeriac can give so much more.
This radical radicle and member of the carrot family has a literary pedigree. The Odyssey mentions it, would you believe⁸. While once upon a time it was the same plant as celery, since the early 17th century it has been cultivated independently, for its root not its stalks. Don’t consider swopping celery for celeriac and vice versa in recipes that call for them by name. You can’t.
Like celery, celeriac can be eaten raw or cooked, and while it has a similar flavour to celery stalks, that flavour is sweeter and more mellow, particularly when exposed to heat. But once it’s peeled, you must move fast. If left for long exposed, celeriac’s sensuously white flesh will turn brown. So keep a bowl of water acidulated with lemon juice to hand to immerse it in as you get it ready for your dish.
Being slightly turnip-y in texture, you may have assumed it was a cold region vegetable exclusive to the northern hemisphere grown only across Northern Europe, Siberia and North America. But it’s also cultivated in North Africa and Southwest Asia, albeit in their cooler high regions. Cepa de apio criollo (Creole celery root), a tuber with a similar flavour to celeriac, is a close relation common to farmers’ markets from Dominica and Puerto Rico (where it is used to make traditional soups) to Venezuela and other Latin American countries where, again, it is grown in highland regions. Filled with vital vitamins and minerals, if you store it in the dark at a low temperature and don’t let it dry out, it will last several months.
I dare to propose that along with the potato, celeriac is one of the most versatile vegetables we cultivate in the West. You can boil it, steam it, roast it, mash it, grate it, fry it, and turn it into the most soothing of winter soups. All that’s required for the latter at its most simple is a base of finely chopped leek and onion stewed in butter till slumpy, chunks of peeled celeriac then thrown in and everything softened in milk or stock, blitzed and a generous pour of cream added. Crisply cooked bacon can be crumbled over to serve or finely sliced rings of shallot also cooked to a crisp.
But that’s just the start of it. Look up a Latkes recipe and swop the potato for celeriac. Fry the Latkes not in the traditional chicken schmaltz (chicken fat) but in duck fat for a taste of South West France, and dab each golden disc with a blob of crème fraîche, possibly with a teaspoon of horseradish folded into it.
Celeriac roasted whole has been on hip restaurant menus and Instagram for some years now. Scrub the unpeeled root thoroughly and rub it well with olive oil and the leaves from 6 sprigs of thyme or a spice like finely ground cumin or coriander, or simply salt it thoroughly. Wrap it tightly in foil, set it in a pan and roast for 2 hours until soft. Spread open the foil and roast 30 minutes more to crisp up the skin. Cut into wedges, drizzle hazelnut oil and lemon juice over it, sprinkle with sea salt and serve with a seared steak, a roast of meat, or just by itself with a mustardy vinaigrette-laced salad.
For a comforting gratin, slice equal quantities of peeled potatoes, carrots and celeriac and layer them with the thin slices of an onion in a gratin dish. Season, cover with cream and dot with butter. Bake in 180C/375F oven for about an hour or until bubbling and gold.
This more luxurious soup is one for a celebration. It really isn’t the trouble the ingredients list suggests and these days we could use a celebration. But if you don’t make the soup, you might make the confit of garlic…
Serves 6
50g/2 oz butter
1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced into small cubes
½ teaspoon sugar
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
50ml verjus/2 fl oz (the juice of unripe grapes, available from good delis) or a splash of cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 medium celeriac root, about 700g/1½ lb, peeled and roughly cubed
250g/8oz potatoes, peeled and roughly cubed
3 large apples, peeled, cored and roughy cubed
1½ litres/3¼ pints chicken stock
150ml/5 fl oz double cream
1-2 tablespoons Armagnac or brandy (optional)
Good squeeze of lemon juice
For the garlic confit cream
8-10 cloves garlic confit (see below)
150-200g/5-6 fl oz crème fraîche
Melt the butter in a large casserole over medium-high heat. Sauté the small dice of the single apple, sprinkled with sugar. When the apple has begun to turn gold and caramelise, season with salt and pepper, raise the heat and add verjus or cider vinegar. Shake to toss the apple in it until the liquid has evaporated. Remove to a bowl and keep warm.
In the same pan, heat the olive oil and sweat the onion, celeriac and potatoes for 10 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently. Add the remaining raw apples and the chicken stock, and simmer until the celeriac and potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Process into a smooth soup, adding stock or water to thin if necessary. Stir in the cream, Armagnac and lemon juice, and season to taste.
Drain the confit garlic cloves from their oil and press through a sieve with the back of a spoon. Fold this puree into the crème fraîche. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve the soup with a modest spoonful of the caramelised apple, and another of cream of confitted garlic on top.
Garlic Confit
4 heads or more of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
vegetable oil
Cover the garlic cloves with oil in a small pan. Simmer over the lowest possible heat until the garlic is tender, about 20-30 minutes. Do not let cloves get more than light gold or they will taste bitter. Remove from pan heat and let the garlic cool in the oil before storing in a jar in the refrigerator. They will last 1-2 months before becoming rancid.
Hint1: The garlic-flavoured oil can be used to brush over fillets of chicken or fish before grilling or in vinaigrette dressing.
Hint2: Peeling quantities of garlic cloves is irksome. A trick which mostly works is to break open the head of garlic and drop the individual cloves into a roomy glass jar. Put the lid on and shake vigorously for a minute. If the cloves don’t separate from their skins, slice off their root-base and try again. Or give up and just bash them lightly with a jam jar then peel.
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