Celeriac tasting plate of poached, remoulade and puree, with candied spiced walnuts and beetroot

Serves: 6
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 1 hr 0 mins

Ingredients

  • Serves six
  • 3 heads of celeriac
  • 4 vegetable stock cubes
  • 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 3 tsp capers, chopped
  • 50g chives, finely sliced
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp mayonnaise
  • Fine sea salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 16 walnuts
  • 60g brown sugar
  • 100ml water
  • 3 tsp Chinese five spice
  • 50-60ml cream
  • 18 baby beets
  • 60ml olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 8 sprigs thyme
  • 4 bay leaves

Cover two heads of celeriac with cold water and add several pinches of salt. Bring to the boil, add the stock cubes and simmer for 60-75 minutes, or until tender.

Place the baby beetroot, skin on, in a large bowl with the thyme, bay leaves, olive oil and garlic. Toss together then cover with foil and bake at 180 degrees/gas 4 for 40 minutes. Leave to cool slightly, then pull the skin off.

Place the walnuts, 100ml water, five spice and brown sugar in an oven dish and mix well. Bake at 180 degrees/gas 4 until the nuts caramelise, about 20 minutes. Mix and spoon onto a tray to cool.

While the celeriac is cooking, peel the remaining head of celeriac and cut it in half. Dice one half up, cover with cold water, add four pinches of salt, bring to the boil and simmer until tender. When cooked, drain, then blend with a stick blender and add the cream slowly, until you have a smooth purée.

Slice the remaining raw celeriac as thin as possible, then stack the slices and cut into julienne strips. Place these in a bowl and add the vinegar, mustards, capers, lemon and lime juice, mayonnaise, sugar and chives. Mix well and season.

When the whole celeriac is cooked, peel away the skin, cut in half, then get six slices out of each half, in any shape. Roughly chop the walnuts. Place the beets and large celeriac pieces in the oven to reheat. Heat up the purée in a small pot until it bubbles.

To plate, serve three slices of poached celeriac, three baby beets, a spoonful of remoulade, a spoonful of purée and a pinch or two of walnut crumble. You could add a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of truffle oil and some leafy greens.