Tag: Celery

Another Celery Salad

  • I was making a quick lunch with some Polish smoked mackerel and wanted to make a couple of salads to go with it. 
  • I had some celery stems and though I would make my easy celery & peanut salad with sultanas.  This is in an earlier post Seler – Celeriac – Celery
  • I suddenly realised that I did not have any salted peanuts so decided to improve and use an apple with the celery, which are two of the ingredients of Waldorf Salad.
  • It turned out very well and will be going on my list of easy standby salads.

Ingredients

  • 4- 5 celery stems
  • 80g of sultanas
  • 1 large eating apple eg Pink Lady
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise 

Method

  • Trim the celery stems and cut into fine slices.
  • Core the apple and cut into small pieces.
  • Mix the celery, apples and sultanas together.
  • Pour the lemon juice over the mixture.
  • Add mayonnaise mix well together.

Waldorf Salad

Recently I have been watching my box set of Fawlty Towers DVDs, which is still so amusing after all these years.

Whilst watching the episode with the American guest and the Waldorf salad  – when famously Basil Fawlty says  “I think we’re just out of  waldorfs” – I thought – I have never actually had that -must look it up and make it!

Waldorf salad was created by Oscar Tschirky, a Swiss-American, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York in 1896.

The original was made with celery, apple and grapes – nuts were added a bit later.

Either use green skinned apples for an all green look or red skinned for a nice contrast.

Toasted walnuts are delicious – just take care and watch them so you do not burn them!

Ingredients

  • 6 sticks of celery
  • 2 eating apples – Braeburn are good
  • 100g walnuts – toasted
  • 100 -150g of seedless green grapes
  • 2-3 tablespoons of full fat mayonnaise
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • *
  • Crispy lettuce leaves to serve

Method

  • Trim the celery and cut into small slices.
  • Core the apples and chop into small pieces
  • Chop the toasted walnut into small pieces
  • Cut the grapes into halves
  • Mix the celery, apples, nuts and grapes together
  • Mix the mayonnaise with the lemon juice
  • Mix the dressing with the salad
  • *
  • Hand shred the lettuce leaves and put them in the bottom of a shallow bowl
  • Heap the salad on top of the lettuce

Serving Variation

For individual servings put one or two lettuce leaves per person in a small dish and spoon some salad in the middle.

Krupnik – Pearl Barley Soup

Krupnik is the name of the very Polish  – Pearl Barley soup.

Krupnik is also the name of the famous honey liquor drink known in Poland from the 13th century.

I always wondered why these two had the same name. I now know that krupa is an old name for grain and  barley in particular – hence the connection.

Barley ( Hordeum vulgare) grows in temperate regions and is one of the  oldest known cultivated grains, known in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago.

Jęczmień is the Polish for barley.

Pęczak is the Polish for pearled barley.

Pearl or pearled barley, is whole grain barley that has been processed to remove its fibrous outer hull and polished to remove some or all of the bran layer.  It is the most common form of barley for cooking. 

I think of this as a quite filling winter soup.

Ingredients

  • 10g dried mushrooms
  • 2 litres of chicken stock (homemade is best – but use cubes if you have no other)
  • 3 carrots
  • 2 parsnips
  • Half a celeriac or 3 stalks of celery (celeriac is more traditional but not always available in British shops).
  • 150g of pearl barley
  • 4-5 peppercorns
  • 2-3 allspice grains
  • Salt & ground black pepper
  • Flat-leaved parsley – to garnish

Method

  • Cover the mushrooms with boiling water and leave overnight.
  • Chop the mushrooms into small pieces.
  • Add the chopped mushrooms and the liquor from soaking to a saucepan of stock.
  • Peel and grate the carrots on a medium grater.
  • Peel and chop the parsnips into small pieces,
  • If using celeriac – peel, cook the whole piece – remove when nearly cooked and chop into small pieces and put back in.
  • If using celery stalks – chop them fine.
  • Add the carrots, parsnips and celery/celeriac to the stock.
  • Add the peppercorns and allspice to the pot.
  • Bring to the boil.
  • Rinse the pearl barley with cold water.
  • Add the pearl barley to the soup and bring back to the boil.
  • Cook for around 5 minutes.
  • Cover the pot with a lid.
  • Turn the heat down and simmer for around 30 minutes.
  • If using celeriac – remove and chop it up into small pieces and put it back in.
  • Check that the pearl barley has cooked, simmer for longer if need be.
  • Check the seasonings.
  • Serve garnished with flat-leaved parsley.

 

 

Served in Royal Doulton – Tapestry  – 1966 – 1988.

Pasta Salad with Skwarki

There was a heat wave this summer (2018) in England and Europe and during my recent trip to The Netherlands, I had lunch in the sunny garden of my friend’s older sister.

 

One of the dishes was a pasta salad  and included an ingredient which you would find as a garnish in many Polish dishes – skwarki – small, crispy, fried, bacon pieces.

This was a wonderful addition and I think would go well in other salads too.

I recreated this dish when I got home – the exact amounts are not so important.

Ingredients

400g  of cooked Penne or Macaroni

1 small tin of sweetcorn – drained

3 celery stalks

125g of smoked bacon

3 tablespoons of  mayonnaise (I used full fat – which I prefer for cooked salads)

Ground black pepper

Method

Chop the bacon into small squares and place on a heavy frying pan on a medium heat until all the fat comes out and you are left with small, crispy squares.

 

 

Drain the bacon pieces from the fat and place them on some kitchen roll and leave them until they are cold.

Chop the celery into fine pieces.

You can cut the pasta into smaller pieces if you wish.

 

 

In a large bowl, mix the pasta, sweetcorn, celery and the skwarki together.

 

Add the mayonnaise and the ground black pepper and mix well together.

Note

You are unlikely to need to add any salt as this is provided by the bacon.

This salad will go well with cold meats and barbecued meats.

 

Seler – Celeriac – Celery

Today,  4 July 2016, is the first Anniversary of my blog!

What an interesting year it has been for me with all the reading & research, cooking & photographing  and the writing.

I do hope you are all enjoying reading my posts & God willing this is the start of another interesting year.

This will be my 58th post &  I am going to  write about  a  very popular vegetable in Poland.

Seler – Celeriac – Celery

  • The word seler in Polish is used for both celeriac and celery and in fact celeriac is a just a variety of celery (Apium graveolens).
  • Celeriac is mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey where it is called selinon.
  • Now for a little plant biology – in English the stems of the plant are known as celery and they  are long with leaves at the top.
  • Whereas in the variety known as celeriac – it is the hypocotyl – the swollen enlarged stem above the root and below the leaves  – which is eaten. The leaves come off the top of this swollen stem. (Celeriac is often classed as a root vegetable but it is not the root.)
  • Celeriac has not been around in the shops in England for that long and last week I bought one in Marks & Spencer’s and it had a label on it saying “NEW“.
  • Years ago when I looked at my Polish cookery book and it talked about grating seler – celery I used to think “oh, how very odd – I wonder how that comes out“ – I now realise  that they  were referring to grating celeriac.
  • In Poland you are much more likely to be served celeriac than celery  and it is a very popular vegetable which can be eaten both raw and cooked and is used in a variety of salads.
  • I have been trying out some salads both with raw & cooked celeriac including some old favourites.  Celeriac has a delicate flavour and easily picks up the flavours of the other ingredients.
  • Dressings for the salads include mayonnaise, soured cream, natural thick yoghurt & my favourite grated horseradish (I use a bought sauce.)

I have given details of the dressing I have used in the following recipes but they are easily interchangeable.

Salads Using Raw Celeriac

  • For the following recipes you will need to peel the celeriac – use a peeler if you can as using a knife can take too much off. You then need to grate the celeriac.
  • Lemon juice is needed to prevent the grated celeriac discolouring.

Simple Celeriac Salad

Ingredients

  • Grated celeriac – around half of one
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 small tart apples such as Granny Smith – grated
  • Mayonnaise
  • Soured cream

Method

  • Make the dressing by mixing mayonnaise and soured cream together, I tend to use equal amounts.
  • Mix the grated celeriac & grated apple together.
  • Pour the lemon juice over them.

Add the dressing bit by bit – you want to coat the ingredients but not have lots of excess dressing.

Celeriac with Raisins & Walnuts Salad

  • Grated celeriac – around half of one
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 small tart apples such as Granny Smith – grated
  • Raisins – approx 1/2 a cup
  • Chopped walnuts – approx 1/2 a cup
  • Mayonnaise
  • Soured cream
  • Horseradish sauce

Method

  • Make the dressing by mixing mayonnaise and soured cream together – equal amounts – and then add 1 to 2 large tablespoonfuls of horseradish sauce.
  • Mix the grated celeriac & grated apple together.
  • Pour the lemon juice over them.
  • Add the raisins & the chopped walnuts
  • Add the dressing bit by bit – you want to coat the ingredients but not have lots of excess dressing.

Celeriac & Orange Salad

Ingredients

  • Grated celeriac – around half of one
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 small tart apples such as Granny Smith – grated
  • Raisins – approx  1/3 of  a cup
  • 2 oranges
  • Thick yoghurt
  • Soured cream
  • Horseradish sauce

Method

  • Squeeze the juice from 1 orange & pour this over the raisins.
  • Leave this for a couple of hours so that the raisins plump up.

Make the dressing by mixing equal amounts of yoghurt and soured cream together and then add 1 or 2 large tablespoons of horseradish sauce.

IMG_20160619_081142248

  • Mix the grated celeriac & grated apple together.
  • Pour the lemon juice over them.
  • Peel & then chop the other orange and mix this with the soaked raisins.

 

Add the dressing bit by bit – you want to coat the ingredients but not have lots of excess dressing.

Salads Using Cooked Celeriac

  • You can cook the celeriac by boiling it in water but I have found that it is much easier to steam it.
  • If there is still any soil on the celeriac then wash this away with water first.
  • If your celeriac is large you might want to cut it in half and just use half & use the other half for something else.
  • Steam the celeriac – it will need at least 20 minutes.
  • You can use a cake tester to see if it is cooked.
  • Leave it to cool – I leave mine in the steaming pan with the lid on.
  • When it is cold peel away the outer “skin”

Chop the celeriac into rough cubes or chunks.

These cooked cubes are then the basis of many different salads.

You can use the cooked celeriac in many salads instead of boiled potatoes as in the classic  Polish Potato Salad with peas & carrots in mayonnaise.

The potatoes in the above salad can be replaced with celeriac.

Celeriac & Gherkin Salad

Ingredients

  • Chopped cooked celeriac  –  around half of one
  • 1  tart apple such as Granny Smith – grated
  • Lemon juice
  • 1 chopped gherkin
  • 1 chopped onion – red looks good.
  • Mayonnaise

Method

  • Mix the chopped cooked celeriac and the grated apple together and some lemon juice.
  • Add the chopped gherkin and onion.

IMG_20150807_110645717

DSC03153

 

 

 

 

 

Add a couple of large tablespoons of mayonnaise and mix it all together.

Celeriac Salad with Hard Boiled Eggs

Ingredients

  • Chopped cooked celeriac  –  around half of one
  • 1  tart apple such as Granny Smith – grated
  • Lemon juice
  • 2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs chopped
  • Large handful of raisins or sultanas
  • 1 chopped onion – red looks good
  • Thick yoghurt
  • Horseradish sauce.

Method

  • Mix the chopped cooked celeriac and the grated apple together and some lemon juice.
  • Add the chopped onion.
  • Add the raisins (or sultanas)
  • Add  the chopped hard boiled eggs.
  • Mix a dressing using 2 to 3 tablespoons of thick plain yoghurt  and 1 or 2 tablespoons of horseradish sauces and mix the other ingredients.
  • Leave this for around half and hour so that the flavours can mingle.

 

NOTE

If you hard boil very fresh eggs they are very difficult to peel -it is easier to use older eggs.

 

Celery, Peanut & Sultana Salad

This recipe is one I got for one of my sisters many years ago and although this is not a traditional Polish salad it has become one of my trusty recipes as it is so easy and as it is best  to make it sometime ahead there is no last minute stress when making it.

Ingredients

  • 4 long celery stalks
  • Around 1/3 cup of salted peanuts
  • Around 1/3 cup of sultanas
  • Mayonnaise

Method

  • Chop the celery into fine slices.
  • Mix with the peanut and sultanas.
  • Add 2 or 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
  • peanuts
  • Leave for at least  half an hour before serving – I usually make this several hours beforehand.

Now for a little science to explain why the dressing taste so sweet  and is more runny than when it started.

  • Osmosis is the movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of high water concentration to an area of low water concentration to try to equalise the concentrations on both sides.
  • Cells in the plant ingredients have semi-permeable membrane.
  • The salt on the peanuts causes water to leave the celery and go into the mayonnaise, this water then enters the sultanas causing them to plump up.
  • The above is true when you mix many salads but especially here with the salt on the peanuts and the dried fruit.