Celery

 

Celery is one of those vegetables that doesn't really get my imagination going. It's a nice vegetable and pretty critical as part of a mirepoix, but on its own? I suppose this is why there are so few recipes where celery takes center stage. Italians braise it in stock for a long time and that's really good. And I have a dish I make that's beef and celery stewed together for about half an hour (I got that recipe from the back of a Campbell's soup can because what makes the dish is cream of mushroom soup). And, of course, sliced celery is very nice in creamy salads. But what else? I was wondering that when I was browsing a Gary Rhodes' cookbook and I found a very interesting cooked celery dish. It's kind of a warm Waldorf salad because it uses the classic combo of celery, apples, and walnuts. But there's no mayonnaise, just a little bit of butter for enrichment. All you have to do is wash and peel the celery (to get rid of the strings which can be hard to eat), blanch it in boiling water for three minutes, fry some cut-up apples in oil until browned, throw in the blanched and drained celery, and add the butter and walnuts. Some salt and pepper too. It's a nice, light dish. I made it a little bit more savory by garnishing the dish with some thinly sliced Pecorino cheese (best done with a vegetable peeler).

How did it taste? I'd give it a solid B.

What I Just Cooked: Apple Empanadas

Last night I made mandu and had about half a dozen wrappers left over. Not really enough to save but too much to throw away. So today, I decided to make dessert with the leftover wrappers. Actually, the whole dish was a leftover treat. I had apples and cream cheese, so I shredded one apple, sugared it, threw some pumpkin spice in and added a big spoonful of cream cheese. After a good mix, I stuffed the mixture into the leftover wrappers and deep fried the parcels. The result was a kind of dessert empanada.

How did it turn out? I'd give the apple empanadas a solid A.