Coping with Celeriac

Well then, the most excellent Abel & Cole veggie box yielded this week probably the two staples of organic veg boxes, but coincidentally the two most intimidating vegetables to the amateur cook.

I've written about Kohlrabi already, but that and a celeriac...

I turned to the mighty Google for advice, for my cookbooks are found wanting when it comes to these two. I stumbled upon a rather good site: Simply Recipes, which then gave a link to a fantastic site by Rosa Jackson, who is a Canadian food writer based in Nice and Paris. Her site is here, but her previous blog (where I found the recipe) is here.

Long story short, Celeriac and Kohlrabi rosti were fantastic, and pretty easy to sort out.

First of all, peel an entire Kolrabi and a smallish celeriac. Chop it into manageable chunks, then shred in a food processor. Once this is done, then add an egg, 50g of gram (chick pea) flour, 2 tbsp of water, some chopped parsley, and whiz it all in the processor until it's all nicely blended.



Actually, I found that more like 3 eggs were needed, probably a bit more flour (another 20g?) and a wee bit more water. I also thought it would be good with a chopped red chilli and some coriander.

Anyway, once all that's done, heat up some oil (about 3 tbsp) in a large frying pan on a medium heat, form the mixture into little 3cm wide thin cakes (use a dessert spoon), and fry 'em all up, keeping them warm in the oven in between batches.

Really nice! Especially with chilli sauce and a little salad.

Thank you to Rosa for this one - great stuff

London Skies...

Well it's been a long time. Kinda busy finishing off our first room in the house - the first one to look exactly the way we'd like it to look! Major achievement, and much bloggage to follow.

But this weekend has been absolutely gorgeous in the sun. And a little strange too. For the first time since probably 2001, the skies over London have been completely clear, with not a vapour trail or a low rumble of aircraft to be seen or heard. This just struck me as I was out in the garden the other morning and the sky was perfectly clear. And again when we were out with friends in the grounds of Cliveden House.


(The photo is from our garden, not Cliveden...)
I know it's extraordinarily difficult for various people importing or exporting, or for folks struggling to get back from holidays or organise anything that depends on air travel, but still, for a few days in 2010, we will all remember the clear and quiet skies over London and how it makes us think about what life was once like...

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