celery

“empty the crisper” side dish / contorno “svuota frigorifero”

| Simona
"emtoy your crisper" side dish / P1030844

there is no secret, though there is a sauce
(napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO)

I enjoyed reading the novel Among the Lesser Gods by Margo Catts1 more than I expected. I read Deb of Kahakai Kitchen's review2 tried my luck at her giveaway and won a copy. Once I started reading the book, it was hard to put it down: I wanted to know whether Elena would sort out her life, how the children she takes care of would adjust to their new life, whether the truth of Elena's aunt's disappearance decades earlier would eventually emerge. Everything in the book is well-measured: the plot, the characters and their evolution, the conversations and the descriptions. The writing is graceful and the reader gladly follows the story of hurtful truth, redemption and finding contentment in the individual moments of our life. 

Elena accepts the offer to take care of two children whose mother recently died and whose father is often away for work. Adjustments on both sides are needed. Providing nutritious and varied meals that the children enjoy is a source of concern for Elena and sometimes, focused on ensuring that they are engaged in interesting activities, she ends up having to make do with what's available in the refrigerator (there is also a "secret" stash of food in the house, but you'll have to read the novel to find out about that ;) 

red onion and celery in a cast-iron Dutch oven / P1030859

and so it begins, with red onion and celery

I don't have two children to feed, so the challenge to create a dish with what I have available is more driven by the fact that I have an assortment of vegetables (verdure) in the crisper that I must consume. For all my trust in, and reliance on, recipes (usually my own), I also believe in serendipitous mixing of ingredients to produce a pleasant result. 

sliced cabbage on cutting board / IMG_0870

I stopped slicing just to enjoy the simple beauty of fresh cabbage

What I share below then is not so much a recipe as an invitation to be creative with what you have, to try matching flavors you have not tasted before. The important thing is that you use all the vegetables you have, without waste and with pleasure.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for "Empty the Crisper" side dish

Ingredients: what you have available in the crisper, garden and storage (e.g., onions). In the case of the photo above:

  • 3 tablespoons / 45 ml extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil
  • 7 ounces / 200 g red onion, diced small
  • Leaves from a few sprigs of fresh thyme (timo)
  • 7 ounces / 200 g celery, diced small
  • 5 ounces / 140 g rainbow carrots, scraped, rinsed and sliced (if large, sliced into half-moons)
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon Harissa spice mix3
  • 1 1/4 pound / 20 ounces / 570 g green cabbage, quartered and thinly sliced
  • 2-3 tablespoons / 30-45 ml coconut milk (latte di cocco)
  • Fine sea salt, to taste

Warm up the oil in a lidded 5-Qt cast-iron Dutch oven.

Add the onion and stir well, then add the thyme leaves and stir. After a couple of minutes, add the celery and carrots and stir. After a couple of minutes, cover the pot and cook the vegetables on gentle heat for 12-15 minutes, stirring every now and then.

Uncover the pot, add the garlic and sprinkle the Harissa, stir well and continue cooking for a couple of minutes. Add the cabbage, stir well, cover and cook gently for 20 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and, if necessary 1-2 tablespoons of water to the vegetables, stir well, cover and continue cooking until the vegetables are soft. Check after 20 minutes and gauge the amount of time still needed.

Adjust salt, give it a final stir and take off the heat. Serve warm.

Serves 5

The latest "empty the crisper" side dish I made included: a large leek, stalks from a bunch of rainbow chard4 and a small bunch of red Russian kale from my vegetable garden (orto).

Sometimes the result will be better than others. It will be a surprise (sorpresa). If it is blah, add cheese and use it as a topping for a vegetable tart, like this one.5

Final note: the sauce in the top photograph is my rendition (vegan and gluten-free) of mole poblano (recipe in this post).

1 The novel's page on the publisher's website
2 Read Deb's review of the novel and the recipe she paired with it
3 The Harissa spice mix I use
4 See this post for the recipe that uses the green portion of the chard
5 From the blog archives: savory zucchini and skyr tart

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

contorno "svuota frigorifero"

or launch the contorno "svuota frigorifero" audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Small_NFlogoThis is my contribution to the 32nd edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started some time ago and that I continue to host.

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the napkin free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

celery, cabbage, carrot, side dish, braise, Italian cuisine

recipe: “empty the crisper” side dish

| Simona

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braised celery and leeks / sedano e porri stufati

| Simona
braised celery and leeks / DSC_8285

a plateful of flavor (placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

The historical novel Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club, was quite an interesting read. While the narrator is a slave named Thrasius, the protagonist is his owner, Marcus Gavius Apicius, who lived in the 1st century during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius and became famous for his love of food and his sumptuous dinners. Rich and ambitious, he is driven by the desire to become culinary advisor to the emperor. The pact with the devil (Sejanus) he makes exacts a high price.

The novel weaves together the lives of the individual characters with ancient Rome's life, politics and cuisine. A couple of novels I read some years ago prompted me to delve into the subject of Roman recipes for which De Re Coquinaria (a.k.a., Apicius) were the source1. This is not the right venue for a detailed discussions of the relationship between Marcus Gavius Apicius and De Re Coquinaria. The latter is a great source and I consulted it again to find a recipe to go with our book selection.

diced celery / IMG_4591

the simple beauty of diced celery on the cutting board

Lately I have been on a celery streak: my mother used celery as part of odori (a collection of aromatics), but we never had celery salad or any dish in which celery played a leading role. Celery omelette2 was the result of my first foray into celery-land. Beautiful freshly harvested celery at the farmers' market and recipe number 71 in this translation of De Re Coquinaria3 inspired a dish of braised celery and leek that has become an instant favorite with both my husband and me. My recipe, solidly savory, is quite different from the ancient one, but I owe to it the suggestion to pair one of my favorite vegetables, leeks, with one I am getting to know.

Roman recipes use garum4 as condiment, a fermented fish sauce, which I substitute with anchovy fillets (I would try using colatura di alici5 if I had access to some). While anchovies provide a distinctive nuance, besides salt, they can be omitted to make a vegan version of the dish.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Braised celery and leeks

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces / 225 g leek, white and light green portion, clean weight (set aside the dark green portion to make broth or stock)
  • 3 tablespoons / 45 ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 8 ounces / 225 g celery, diced small
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 1-2 anchovy fillets in olive oil (if you omit this ingredient, the dish is vegan; add fine sea salt to taste at the end)
  • celery leaves, finely chopped, as topping

Cut the leek(s) in half lengthwise and slice into thin half moons. Rinse them in a colander, then place them in a bowl and fill it with cold water. With your hands, swirl the leeks to clean them well, then scoop them out of the water with a sieve or slotted spoon and drain them in a colander.

Warm up the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet or pot. Add the leeks, stir well and cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the celery and thyme leaves, stir well and cook for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle the paprika on the vegetables and stir well. Cover the skillet or pot and cook on gentle heat until the vegetables are soft, stirring every now and then. (The time it takes depends on how fresh the vegetables are.)

Cut the anchovy fillets into small pieces and add to the vegetables. Stir well to blend.

Take off the heat, sprinkle the celery leaves, give a final stir and serve warm.

Serves 3-4.  

braised celery and leek with beans / DSC_8266

add cooked beans and you have a complete meal
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Besides as a side dish, the braised celery and leeks can be used as stuffing for roasted squash (for example, Delicata squash, which I particularly like because you can eat the skin as well as the flesh). 

Another way is shown in the photo above: I cooked a cup of beans6 (fagioli) of my favorite variety (organic Paul's mix, locally grown by Warren Creek Farms), drained them leaving about 1/4 cup / 60 ml of the cooking liquid, then added them to the vegetables 10 minutes or so before they were fully cooked, stirred well, brought the liquid to a simmer, covered and completed the cooking as per the recipe above. 

1 From the blog archives: carrots with cumin sauce (the post includes pointers to some ancient recipes)
2 From the blog archives: celery omelette
3 Book III of Apicius (scroll down to number 71)
4 See a modern garum recipe on this page (which includes also a recipe for pear patina, a dessert mentioned repeatedly in the novel)
5 Wikipedia entry on colatura di alici 
6 See this post for details on how I cook beans

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

sedano e porri stufati

or launch the sedano e porri stufati audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

CtBThis is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by Debra of Eliot's Eats. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the placemat free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

celery, leek, side dish, braise, Italian cuisine

recipe: braised celery and leeks

| Simona

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celery omelette / omelette con sedano

| Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

celery omelette / DSC_7877

celery omelette topped with some mashed avocado
(tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson called out at me from a table at a library book sale and just like the country in which is it set, Norway, it grabbed me immediately. The sky, the woods, the water, everything is expansive in Norway, majestic, yet quiet. Petterson’s prose is like that. Life’s familiar themes—friendship, love, loss, betrayal, coming of age, aging—play a role in the story of Trond Sander, the 67-year-old protagonist.

I imagined to be sitting in front of a fireplace or wood-burning stove on a long Norwegian winter’s night, listening to the narrator, Trond himself, tell his life’s story slowly and methodically, the way he does things in and around his cabin in the woods. Even when he describes episodes that are emotionally intense, Trond’s tone remains calm, but the pain of his losses is quite visible just under the surface.

I didn’t read the novel in one sitting, but the image of Trond spending the last portion of his life living alone (his wife had died in a car accident from which he emerged unscathed three years before the story starts) haunted me. The novel describes in details what Trond does during his days: getting up, getting dressed, making coffee, walking his dog Lyra, reading. He puts on a white shirt to eat dinner, because

It is important not to be careless about supper when you are alone. It is easily done boring as it is to cook for one person only. There must be… no sitting down in your working clothes.

diced celery / IMG_4591

the simple beauty of diced celery on the cutting board

While I love the aroma of celery and use it to make soffritto, until recently I hadn’t looked at it as an ingredient on its own. One morning, thinking also about Trond, I decided to make it the protagonist of an omelette for one. The result was a variation on a classic that was appreciated at the table, so it has been served often for breakfast (colazione) ever since. It is a quick and easy dish to prepare, and nutritious, perfect for Trond especially on a morning when he plans to do some intense physical work to get his cabin in shape for the fast approaching winter. Of course, the recipe can easily be doubled if there are other people at the table (like Trond’s neighbor, Lars, or his eldest daughter, Ellen).

Print-friendly version of briciole’s recipe for Celery omelette

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon / 5 ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons / 10 g unsalted butter, divided in half
  • 60 g celery, diced small
  • 1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 2 large eggs, possibly pastured
  • 1 tablespoon / 15 ml water
  • 2 small pinches of sea salt
  • 1/4 ounce / 7 g Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated
IMG_4589

omelette in progress

Heat up the olive oil and half the butter on medium heat in a 8 1/2 inch / 21.5 cm skillet. Add the celery, stir well and turn down the heat to medium-low. Sprinkle the paprika on the celery and stir. Continue cooking for 5-6 minutes stirring often.

In the meantime, break the eggs into a small bowl and whisk lightly to blend yolks and whites. Add the water and a small pinch of sea salt and whisk lightly to blend.

Add the remaining butter to the celery and swirl it around the skillet. Pour the eggs into the skillet (use a soft spatula to scrape every last drop from the bowl) and move the celery around to ensure it is distribute evenly.

Cook on gentle heat until the surface is almost set.

Sprinkle the cheese on the surface, then with a spatula, lift the omelette on one side and fold it into half onto the other side.

Remove the skillet from the heat, plate the omelette and serve immediately.

In the top photo, the omelette is topped with mashed avocado, the way my husband likes to eat it. In the photo below, it is shown plain with a side of seed crackers, a recent addition to our table of which we are both fond. You will find the recipe in the previous post: gluten-free seed crackers.

celery omelette / DSC_7876

celery omelette served with seed crackers
(tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO)

After reading Out Stealing Horses I will definitely look for other novels by Per Petterson. And I will continue my habit of visiting library sales: I always find interesting books there.

1 A review of the book in the New York Times
2 Wikipedia entry for Per Petterson

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

omelette con sedano

or launch the omelette con sedano audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Small_NFlogoThis is my contribution to the 27th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started some time ago and that I continue to host.

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

omelette, celery, eggs, breakfast, gluten free

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Newrule

omelette con sedano

celery omelette / DSC_7877

omelette con sedano con sopra dell’avocado schiacciato
(tovaglia de La FABBRICA del LINO)

Questa omelette è stata ispirata dal romanzo Fuori a rubar cavalli dello scrittore norvegese Per Petterson1. Se state facendo la lista dei libri da leggere in vacanza, vi consiglio di aggiungerlo.

diced celery / IMG_4591

la semplice bellezza di un mucchietto di sedano a dadini sul tagliere

Mi piace l’aroma del sedano e lo uso nel soffritto ma fino a poco tempo fa non lo consideravo un ingrediente capace di fare da protagonista. Una mattina ho deciso di usarlo per fare un’omelette e il risultato è stato apprezzato a tavola e da quel giorno questa omelette, facile e veloce da preparare, appare spesso sul menu della colazione.

Ingredienti:

  • 1 cucchiaino / 5 ml olio extra vergine d’oliva
  • 10 g burro, diviso a metà
  • 60 g sedano tagliato a dadini
  • 1/8 cucchiaino paprika dolce
  • 2 uova codice 0
  • 1 cucchiaio / 15 ml acqua
  • 2 pizzichini di sale fino
  • 7 g Parmigiano-Reggiano grattugiato fresco
IMG_4589

durante la cottura

Scaldare a fuoco medio l’olio e metà del burro in una padellina di 21,5 cm di diametro. Aggiungere il sedano, mescolare bene e abbassare il calore a medio-basso. Distribuire la paprika sul sedano e mescolare. Continuare a cuocere per 5-6 minuti mescolando spesso.

Nel frattempo rompere le uova in una ciotolina e sbattere leggermente per mischiare tuorli ed albumi. Aggiungere l’acqua e un pizzichino di sale e sbattere leggermente per mischiare.

Aggiungere il resto del burro e farlo girare per distribuirlo sul fondo. Versare le uova nella padellina (pulire bene la ciotolina con l’aiuto di una spatola morbida) e muovere il sedano in modo che sia distribuito in modo uniforme.

Cuocere a fuoco dolce fino a quando la superficie sia quasi rappresa.

Distribuire il formaggio sulla superficie e poi con una spatola sollevare un lato dell’omelette e piegare l’omelette a metà.

Togliere la padellina dal fuoco, impiattare l’omelette e servire immediatamente.

Nella foto in alto l’omelette è presentata con dell’avocado schiacciato spalmato sopra, come piace a mio marito. Nella foto in basso è presentata con i cracker di semi (senza glutine) descritti nel post precedente.

celery omelette / DSC_7876

omelette con sedano servita con dei cracker di semi
(tovaglia de La FABBRICA del LINO)

Questa omelette è stata ispirata dal romanzo Fuori a rubar cavalli dello scrittore norvegese Per Petterson1.

1 Wikipedia: Per Petterson

FTC disclosure: Ho ricevuto la tovaglia gratuitamente dall’azienda produttrice (la FABBRICA del LINO). Non ho ricevuto e non riceverò alcun compenso per presentarla sul mio blog. Le opinioni espresse nel post sono interamente personali.

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recipe celery omelette

| Simona

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