I just watched a Paula Dean cooking show and she had a guest on the show who brought out a thing called celery root. I have never in my life seen anything that looks like that, and this guy claims that we can all buy it at our local grocery stores. I seriously doubt that, but maybe it is something that I have just never noticed before. So next time I go shopping I will be asking the produce manager for celery root and see if they have it around here.
He says you have to peel the celery root and that causes a lot of waste. The idea of wasting a lot of food bothers me, so that is Strike One against buying celery root. After you peel it and make sure everything you cut into is thoroughly clean, you slice it into big chunks and boil it in water on the stove top. After you cook it for 20 -30 minutes, you have to push it through a hand tool called a ricer. That is Strike Two – I don’t have a ricer and I can’t think of anything that I might have in the kitchen tool drawer that would be a good substitute.
Then he adds the cooked and riced celery root into a big pot of boiled but drained white potatoes. Mixing them together with some butter and whole milk, and you have a big pot of tasty mashed potatoes.
I don’t think all that extra work is worth it for me to make this in my own kitchen. If someone has a restaurant and they want to do this and put it on the menu, I’ll be happy to order it at least once and try it. But in my kitchen, I don’t feel the need to add celery root to my mashed potatoes. I’ll do fine with my own way of making that.
