I haven’t celery rave in a long time, for no specific reason, maybe because I don’t enjoy peeling it. is that a good enough reason? maybe not.

In France we eat celery rave a lot, mainly in rémoulade. Rémoulade is grated celery with mayonnaise, so a big word for something quite simple. In this recipe, I combined it with the sweetness of fennel and scallops.

I have noticed that many Americans don’t like fennel nor liquorice, so if you belong to the fennel-haters category, you can replace it with thinly sliced zucchini and instead of fennel, you can use cumin seeds.

I have been making some mango vinegar and playing with it on some recipes other than salads, and I really like it on seafood.

When cooking the scallops, always add salt at the end, otherwise if added while cooking, the scallops won’t turn brown and will form water. Also, when browning scallops, make sure the butter won’t burn. If it does burn, you need to discard it and use fresh butter. Or alternatively, filter the sauce at the end, so that the sauce looks smooth with no butter residue.

Ingredients for 2

For the celery root purée

• 2 small heads of celery, peeled and diced (1 inch)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp onion, chopped
• vegetable broth
• 1 tbs heavy cream
• salt and pepper

For the braised fennel

• 1 tbs onion, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 large fennel bulb, shaved with a mandoline
• juice of 1 orange
• salt and pepper

For the scallops

• about 5 grams butter
• 4 large scallops (fresh not frozen)
• 1 tsp honey
• 3 tbs mango vinegar
• Fleur de sel

Preparation

For the celery root purée

Heat olive oil in a pan and add onion, let them sweat and add celery root. Cover with broth and let cook until absorbed and until celery is tender. You might need to use more broth in the process. Adjust with salt. Mash with a potatoe masher and add cream. Stir well and keep mashing until smooth and homogeneous.

For the braised fennel

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions and fennel and let it cook until fragrant but not until the onion turns golden brown.Add fennel and orange juice, salt and pepper. Cover and let cook at slow heat until orange juice absorbed and fennel tender. Keep warm.

For the scallops

Melt butter in a pan. Add scallops and cook on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes each side. Remove from pan and keep warm. Add honey, stir well and deglaze with mango vinegar and stir well.

Using a rind, place purée at the bottom of the plate. Add fennel on top and scallops at the end. Drizzle scallops with fleur de sel. Pour sauce around or on top of scallops and serve hot. You might want to have your plates warmed up before plating.

Celery root reminds me of France and its Celeri Rémoulade…which is raw shredded celery root salad with mayonnaise. Not that I particularly like mayonnaise on salad but I love celery root flavor.

A while ago, my Japanese neighbor introduced me to this Japanese kind of sweet potato called Okinawan potato; it has such a beautiful vibrant purple color. She was telling me about all the wonderful nutrient packed in it and how they eat it in Japan, so it did not take me long to go and buy some. I love Japanese cuisine, and I was curious to taste it especially that it has many antioxidants, one of which gives it its purple color, is called anthocyanin.

In general I don’t eat much potatoes, I find them quite boring, but this one is really different from all the other kinds of sweet potatoes I tasted and I will explore its use further.

Now what do you do with a celery root and Okinawan potato? You can do many things but the cold weather made me decide on a soup.

The small cubes of potatoes and celery mixed to the crayfish add some pleasant texture to the soup, so that part is not optional. You can also use shrimps instead of crayfish.

This is a lovely soup, delicate yet fragrant with lots of character, so definitely a soup that I will make again.

Ingredients for 4

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion chopped
• 2 celery roots (medium size) peeled and diced + 1 slice cut crosswise in small cubes (1/3 inch) to set aside
• 1 medium size Okinawan potato, peeled and diced + 2 slices cut crosswise in small cubes (1/3 inch) to set aside
• 1 leek, roughly chopped
• vegetable broth (enough to cover the vegetables
• 1 .2 cups cooked crayfish
• lemon oil
• 1 tbs parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a large pot, heat olive oil and add onion. Let them cook until fragrant and translucent. Add all vegetables except for the slice of celery cut in small cubes and the two slices of potatoes cut in small cubes.

Add enough broth to cover the vegetables.

Let cook the soup until all the vegetables are tender. Adjust with salt and pepper.

In a small pan, heat olive oil and saute the small cubes of potatoes and celery root until golden brown outside and soft inside. Add crayfish and saute for a few minutes. Remove from heat and add parsley. Adjust with salt and pepper.

When the soup is cooked. Blend using a hand blender, or mixer.

Divide in plates, and add 1 tbs of crayfish mixture and drizzle with lemon oil. Serve hot