Celery

Celery
Celery is the classic diet food, particularly given the rumour that we burn more calories to digest celery than are actually contained in the vegetable.

This seems to be largely true, but the dozen or so calories you burn are unlikely to make much difference to your waistline.

Rarely taken on its own merits, celery is very useful for flavouring soups, sauces and stews, not to mention stirring bloody marys.

Italians almost always include a stalk or two as a base for their stews and tomato based pasta sauces and speaking of Italy, celery and Gorgonzola are a match made in heaven.

Most books recommend that you blanch celery in boiling salted water but I find it better to braise it for ten minutes on low heat in a little oil or butter.

Once you have braised the celery you can add a béchamel sauce and bake in the oven topped with parmesan or add a few skinned tomatoes (fresh or tinned) plus some garlic, fresh herbs and salt and pepper and cook for a further 15 minutes.


Waldorf Salad
Fans of Fawlty Towers will remember that this simple salad is made with equal parts apple and celery mixed with walnuts, grapes and mayonnaise. The grapes are optional and no Waldorfs are required.

Celery and Blue Cheese Soup (serves 4)
1 head of green Celery, 2 medium onions, 1 medium potato, 50g Butter, 50g Flour, 1ltr Stock (preferably Chicken), 80g Strong Blue Cheese – Crozier, Gorgonzola, St. Agur.

Chop the celery, onions and the peeled potato as finely as you can and reserve a few celery leaves. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the vegetables. Cook the veg. with the lid on at low heat for 15 minutes until very soft. Add the flour and stir in, followed by the stock. Allow to cook for 50-60 minutes on low heat.

I recommend buzzing the soup with a stick blender to thicken it a little but this is not essential. Crumble or chop the blue cheese and remove the soup from the heat. Gradually add the cheese, whisking the soup after each batch.

As you fill each bowl, add a small mound of cheese to the centre plus some finely chopped celery leaf.