celeriac steaks, 'pup' cakes & lavender heartaches
what I did with a homegrown celeriac, lavender cookies and a recipe for your favourite pooch (or human)
garden to table to you.
This week’s newsletter starts where all good things begin ~ in the māra kai.
For months and months, from sun to frost to gales and sleet, with the change of three seasons, we’ve watched as our little patch of celeriac (props to Alex for planting it at the beginning of this year) staunchly grow. It’s no radish or rocket - it’s certainly a crop where you’re in it for the long haul.
I must say that I’ve always struggled with understanding root vegetables fully. They’re curious fellows, forever playing hide and seek under the soil until they get a little too brazen in their hiding spots and start to poke the tops of their heads out above the soil. I cry for the times in the past where I’ve pulled out carrots too early and been left with something the size of a skinny thimble.
Because such time investment has been made in our celeriac, I’ve been particularly apprehensive to pull them up, for fears that despite their full heads of hair (celery-like leaves) they unknown unseen might be dwindling and stunted. So I’ve really been putting off harvesting them. With the dawning of mid-September spring, where the shift of the growing season feels well and truly here, and my tulips are starting to open on the wall next to the celeriac, this week it suddenly found like the right time to pull our celeriac babies up from the soil… and low and behold, they’d grown into regular size adults! Who knew such joy could come from holding a vegetable?
how on earth do you cook a celeriac?
Segway to the next question I was then asking myself… what can I cook with my special celeriac?! The pressure to do it justice suddenly felt all too real, and thus the journey for the celeriac recipe I’m sharing with you today began.
Briefly, for those who are less familiar with celeriac, here’s some info bites about this quirky vegetable:
Celeriac is a root vegetable closely related to celery (hence the similarity in their leaf and stalk structure.
Celeriac can be eaten raw (where it has a crunch, freshness and slight bitterness, similar to celery) or cooked (where it takes on a more earthy sweetness).
Its growing period is usually from late spring/early summer, where it is then ready for harvest through the winter months, following a 5-8 month growing period.
If eating raw, I suggest peeling the skin then slicing up into matchsticks for tossing through salads, or slicing thinly with a mandolin. When roasting (either whole or in steaks, as in my recipe below) you can leave the skin on - it softens to edible deliciousness.
I thought I’d talk you through my process for answering this question, what can I cook with my special celeriac?, and the steps in creating my celeriac recipe that I’m sharing with you today.
I have cooked celeriac once previously. I picked a celeriac up last year from the local market, and straight away knew what recipe I was going to try ~ as I’d eyed it up a year or two prior in one of my favourite books: Celeriac Steaks with Café de Paris Sauce from Ottolenghi & Ixta Belfrage’s Flavour cookbook. In their recipe the celeriac is slow-roasted whole, and then sliced into steaks that you then grill to caramelised perfection. Paired with a creamy, zingy sauce with big lemon and caper flavour, it’s a great recipe. So this was the initial base of celeriac cooking experience I had to launch from.
I then went about some research on the different ways that celeriac can be cooked and eaten. I quickly decided that for the recipe I was to share with you all, I wanted to cook the celeriac, as I thought this may be more useful/educational than just giving you a recipe for a celeriac slaw which might be pretty self-explanatory. As I often do, I stumbled upon some interesting recipes from some of my favourite cooks that utilise celeriac, each where it was prepared in different ways:
Anna Jones (queen of vegetable-centred home cooking) has a delicious-looking and sounding recipe for celeriac burgers, where celeriac steaks are first boiled in salted water then grilled on the barbecue with a sticky barbecue sauce.
Ottolenghi has another interesting celeriac recipe, where raw celeriac is pickled with lime juice and rice wine vinegar, and whole roast celeriac is cut up into wedges and roasted again. The two are then brought together with a a sweet chilli dressing.
Richard Makin, vegan columnist for Olive magazine, opts to marinate the celeriac for a few hours, before roasting the marinated steaks.
So as I often do, I heeded the advice and techniques of these cooks, looked through some of my cookbooks to get some further inspiration, then conjured up my own interpretation of the celeriac steak ~ which I’m so excited to share with you this week, my Celeriac steaks with harissa, mint, lemon & coconut:
To save time, I’ve opted to roast the celeriac in its steak form (as 2 hours to roast a whole celeriac on a busy weeknight just wasn’t the vibe).
I decided not to peel the celeriac (to reduce waste), and the skin actually adds a wonderful texture once roasted and softened.
I chose to roast the celeriac at a slightly higher oven temperature than others have, as I really wanted to go for extra caramelisation, to amp up the flavour.
On the flavour side, I wanted to bring some umami, so brushing the celeriac with a harissa, tomato-ey, soy, maple marinade was where I chose to go. I then leaned into the herby, capersy, lemony notes of the Ottolenghi Café de Paris Sauce with a mint & lemon salsa (salsa verde esque) which really brightens with the roasted celeriac. And to cool it all off a turmeric tahini cream that pops with colour, and bolsters the natural creamy nuttiness that the celeriac brings.
I so hope you’re able to find a celeriac at your local market or produce seller to give this recipe a whirl!
spring has sprung and I’m in lavender love
I’m loving the early morning walks around my neighbourhood at this time of year, where the feeling of spring is well and truly abound. It’s that sweet spot in the morning right before daylight savings starts, where it’s light and bright at 6.45am, after a winter of cold darkness that always feels a bit bloody rude when I roll out of bed. Down the end of the road, a big old lavender bush is now in full bloom, and often when I’m walking by, as I also do with any rosemary bush I stumble upon, I briefly rub one of the lavender flowers gently with my fingers and inhale their perfume. It’s amazing what it does to lift my spirits, even when it’s still 8 degrees in Dunedin.
While conscious that the lavender flowers are very much for the plant and the bees at this time of year, given the copious amounts of lavender screaming out at me, I couldn’t get over the thought of lavender cookies (that had been bouncing around my head since the lavender started flowering), so picked a handful of flowers to experiment with.
The result is the second recipe I’m sharing with you this week, my Lemon, lavender & caramelised white chocolate cookies. Lemon in a cookie might sound like an unusual choice to some, let alone lavender as well, but this surprising combination is truly incredible. The lemon does a good job at balancing the sweetness of the cookie and caramelised white chocolate, and the lavender adds a more complex rounded flavour and wonderful fragrance that really does add to the cookie eating experience. I tested these cookies on a few of my tennis mates yesterday, and the consensus was that they could actually get the lavender in them - which is what I was hoping for! If you can’t get your hands on any lavender, these cookies are still very much worth making even without it.
may I order one ‘pup’ cake please
In other news this week, Beau the greyhound managed to do the rounds on the media circuit in celebration of SPCA Cupcake Day, which was celebrated around the country on Wednesday 18th September. Beau was heard on breakfast radio with the Breeze, and also made a few appearances on social media as a poster child for the cupcake fundraiser. For those who haven’t seen him enjoying his ‘pup’ cakes, have a watch of the video below.
SPCA is an incredible organisation that do awesome mahi in preventing animal cruelty and rehabilitating Aotearoa animals who are sick, injured, abused or abandoned. While the ‘official’ cupcake day has been and gone, you can still sign-up and participate in cupcake day for the next month (the idea is that you bake for your mates and ask them to give a donation to SPCA in exchange for the deliciousness you share with them); or equally you can donate to the fundraiser directly through their website.
In helping Beau to get amongst the cupcake day action, I’ve created a plant-based ‘pup’ cake recipe that’s perfect to make for your favourite pooch for their next special occasion. Rather than using refined sugars (that aren’t the best thing for your dog), they’re packed full of banana, apple, peanut butter, and honey/maple syrup for sweetness. Unlike a lot of ‘pup’ cakes out there which aren’t so palatable to the human taste, these are actually just really nice cupcakes to make for yourself any day of the week too. Super easy recipe, fluffy and neatly spiced (yes, dogs can eat things like cinnamon, turmeric and ginger in small amounts, yay for anti-inflammatory properties! - I don’t suggest you try the cinnamon challenge with your pooch though), with the easiest peanut butter-yoghurt whip icing ever. One for the peanut butter lovers out there!
Best of the season this fortnight (NZ):
Citrus - late lemons, grapefruit, oranges
Early asparagus
Avocados
Last of the leeks
Carrots
Brassicas (broccoli, caulis, cabbages)
Hardy greens - cavolo nero, silver beet, kale
Celery
Mushrooms
Spinach
Celeriac
Spring onions
Onion weed
Brain food:
a new food waste app initiative - could be heading your way soon
could you eat only NZ-made food for a year… or a lifetime?
some Te Reo Māori kai-centric words to learn - bring te reo into your kīhini or wharekai
for the Ottolenghi fans, try before you buy with these comfort recipes from his new book
That’s it from me for this week, I do hope you find some satisfaction in giving these recipes a go - for the celeriac and lavender sceptics, be brave, you’ve got this!
Right now, as I write these letters, I’m sitting anxiously beside my work phone, waiting for the call that’s surely soon to come to start my Sunday shift…
… good thing I’ve got some lemon & lavender cookie dough balls in the freezer to look forward to when I get home. I hope you’ve got something similarly delicious or comforting to look forward to at the end of your day too.
Much love,
Alby xx
Celeriac steaks with harissa, mint, lemon & coconut
This is a lovely recipe to make when you’re wanting a vegan meal that feels a little bit special - a little bit fancy, but without too much faff. The celeriac takes on this wonderful sweet earthiness when roasted, which pairs terrifically with the zingy bite of the salsa, umami marinade and cooling turmeric tahini cream that it’s served with. It’s also plant-based, so a great vegan option for a special occasion.
Hands-on Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
serves 4 as a main (2 celeriac steaks each)
Cost Estimate: $24
Ingredients
2 medium celeriac (about 500g each), hairy roots discarded and scrubbed very clean
3 tbsp olive oil
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp rose harissa paste
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, finely grated
Turmeric tahini cream
200ml coconut cream
50g tahini
juice of ½ lemon
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp cracked black pepper
large pinch of sea salt
Mint & lemon salsa
4 cloves garlic
1 small green chilli
2 tbsp capers
20g mint leaves (from 1 medium bunch)
20g flat-leaf parsley leaves (from 1 medium bunch)
75ml olive oil
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
sea salt, to taste
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C fan-forced (or 210°C conventional). Line a large rimmed oven tray with baking paper.
For the steaks, cut each celeriac into four 2cm thick steaks, so you have 8 steaks. You do not need to peel the celeriac. Score shallow lines in a criss-cross pattern on both sides of each steak - this will help the marinade to soak into the steaks. Place the celeriac steaks on the lined roasting dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, harissa, maple syrup, soy sauce, tomato paste, cumin and garlic to form a smooth marinade. Brush half the marinade evenly over the top side of the steaks. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn each celeriac steak over. Brush the top of each steak evenly with the remaining marinade and roast for a further 20 minutes until golden and caramelised.
For the salsa, in a mortar and pestle (or blender), pound together the garlic, chilli and capers. Add the mint and parsley and bash together to form a rough chunky paste. Gradually add the olive oil to emulsify and finally stir through the lemon zest and juice. Season to taste with a little sea salt.
To make the cream, in a small bowl, whisk together the ingredients until smooth and well combined; set aside.
To serve, spoon the turmeric tahini cream onto the base of each plate. Top with the celeriac steaks and spoon over the mint & lemon salsa. Serve immediately.
Alby’s Advice:
Feel free to dial back the maple syrup or dial up the soy sauce in the marinade for the steaks, depending how sweet or umami you’’d like it to be.
This recipe can easily be saved (ie just cook one celeriac and use half the marinade. It’s worth making plenty of the salsa as this goes terrifically with many things - this past week I’ve been eating it on toast with avo and chilli oil.
If you can’t get your hands on celeriac, you could try roasted parsnip or butternut pumpkin as an alternative - although nothing quite compares.
Lemon, lavender & caramelised white chocolate cookies
These cookies are an absolute doozy of a recipe. Floral, fragrant, rich, crispy-yet-chewy, warming and oh so delicious. The lavender adds a lovely floral back note to the more forward lemon, which pairs perfectly with the warmth of the caramelised white chocolate. You can easily leave out the lavender if hard to find.
Hands-on Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
makes 18 medium cookies
Cost Estimate: $12.50
Ingredients
200g caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar
1 tbsp lavender petals*, plus extra for sprinkling
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
200g butter, softened to room temperature
1 egg
300g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
250g caramelised white chocolate, roughly chopped into 1-2cm chunks
sea salt flakes, for sprinkling
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced (or 180°C conventional). Line a small tray (one that will fit in your freezer) with baking paper.
Place the sugars, lavender and lemon zest in a large bowl. Using your hands, rub the lavender and lemon into the sugar until wonderfully fragrant. Add the butter and with an electric hand or stand mixer, beat for 3 minutes until fluffy, creamy and well combined. Add the egg and beat for a further minute until mixed through evenly. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a wooden spoon, fold the dry ingredients into the wet and mix to form a soft cookie dough. Add the chocolate, stirring through the cookie dough until evenly distributed. Roll the mixture into balls (about 60g each, just bigger than a golf ball), ensuring a piece of chocolate is at the top of each, as this will give you pools of chocolate on your cookies. Place on the lined tray, ensuring they are not touching, and place in the freezer for 20 minutes until firm to the touch and chilled.
Line two large oven trays with baking paper. Once chilled, arrange 6-8 balls of cookie dough onto each tray, evenly spaced at least 5cm apart, as they will spread during baking. Bake for about 16 minutes, swapping the trays at halfway, until turning golden brown on the edges and slightly cracked on top. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with extra lavender petals and sea salt flakes, and if you want to ‘scoot’ your cookies (see note below), do so now. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat the baking process with the remaining cookie dough balls, or you can leave these in the freezer in an airtight bag/container for future cookies on demand; you do not need to defrost, just simply bake from frozen (they keep well frozen for up to 6 months).
Alby’s Advice:
If desired, you can ‘scoot’ your cookies to make them perfectly round - as soon as they come out of the oven, take a round glass or cutter with an opening just larger than the cookies, place upside down to enclose the cookie (like capturing an insect), and keeping contact with the baking tray, move the glass in a circle so that it nudges some of the uneven edges of the cookie inwards to form a perfect circle.
I like to make, roll and freeze the cookie dough in advance, so on a cosy evening I can take a few balls of cookie dough out of the freezer and bake immediately.
*you can use either fresh or dried lavender petals. I used fresh petals for these cookies, taken from a bush down the road and petals plucked from their stems. For dried lavender, just let the flowers sit on the kitchen bench in the sun for a day or two then rub between your hands to let the petals separate.
Peanut butter, apple & banana ‘Pup’ cakes
A great plant-based cupcake recipe that’s perfect for dogs and humans a like. It’s packed full of the natural sweetness of apple, banana and honey/maple syrup, and topped with an easy peanut butter and yoghurt whip that could not be simpler to make. Your pups and pals are gonna love these!
Hands-on Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
makes 10 cupcakes
Cost Estimate: $8
Ingredients
‘Pup’ cakes
200g mashed ripe banana flesh (from 2 small-medium ripe bananas)
75g grated apple (from 1 small-medium apple)
75g peanut butter
75g honey, melted (or maple syrup if vegan)
75ml canola oil
150g plain or wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground turmeric
Peanut yoghurt icing
100g natural unsweetened Greek yoghurt (use coconut yoghurt if vegan)
100g peanut butter
1 tbsp honey, melted (or maple syrup if vegan)
chopped roasted peanuts or toasted thread coconut, to decorate
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced (or 180°C conventional). Line a twelve-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases (you will have enough batter for about 10 cupcakes).
In a large bowl, whisk together the mashed banana, grated apple, peanut butter, honey and oil until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and turmeric. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and gently fold together until just combined. Spoon into each cupcake case, so it is ⅔ full (you will likely have a little extra batter leftover). You should have about 10 cupcakes. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
For the icing, in a small bowl whisk together the ingredients until well combined and whipped. Refrigerate until needed. When your cupcakes have cooled, dollop some of the icing on top of each cupcake, and sprinkle with some chopped peanuts or toasted coconut (if desired). Give to your dog (or human) to devour.