Celeriac, also called turnip-rooted celery, celery root, or knob celery, is a variety of celery cultivated for its edible stem or hypocotyl, and shoots. Despite its name, it is not a close relative of the turnip. Celeriac is like a root vegetable except it has a bulbous hypocotyl with many small roots attached. It is very good mashed and tastes similar to mashed potatoes. It is traditionally served with game dishes in France, due to it’s complimentary neutral taste.
Lauren’s deer tenderloin was cooked this way by Laurent with duck foie gras, served in a sharptail grouse broth and grape compote, accompanied by potatoes, sweet potatoes, and celeriac.
- Celeriac : 1 root for 2/3, cut into 1 inch pieces, boil for 15 minutes. Drain. Then melt 1/2 c. butter in a pan, mash or food process the root pieces until it looks like lumpy mashed potatoes, and you add butter or/and cream until you are happy with the taste. Salt and pepper. You could mix with same quantity of potatoes if the meal is not game.
If you don’t have celeraic root or if you want to mix it with mashed potatoes for serving along side a non-game dish, here is the French recipe for mashed potatoes:
- Potatoes : Mash as usual. Add butter and crème fraiche (better than milk), Sour cream good alternative I used. Then for us 5 I added 4 yolks and whisked the whites to “blancs en neige” and add with a spoon, little by little 3/4 of it until the texture was okay, not too liquid. Season with salt and pepper. (Note-some potatoes are more dense than others, hence no proportions.)