Best Way to Enjoy Homegrown Celery?

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi there

I use celery all the time, adding it to soups & casseroles as well as eating it raw. I make a dish very like HiDeights but I wrap the celery in thin slices of home-cooked ham it makes a great supper dish & disguises the taste a bit for children (they take a while to get used to the taste)! I have also made it with thin cooked rashers of bacon or Serrano Ham.

I haven't grown celery for years but I'm going to next year. I seem to remember putting loads of soot from my newly swept chimney into the earth over the stems. I shall have to look it up!

A tip for you..............if you cut off the top leaves & thin stems when you are preparing it, DON'T THROW THEM INTO THE COMPOST BIN, dry them off until they are crispy & use them as a dried herb, very useful when you don't have any fresh stuff. Be careful how much you use as the taste gets very powerful as it dries.


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I know this is simple, but I love my raw celery dipped in peanut butter! Crunchy only. Add a few raisins and youv'e got yourself a yummy "ant canoe"!

That was my most immediate thought on how to use my celery, but I didn't remember the raisins.

Hattie -- thanks for the tip about drying some for later use. So I can use dried leaves for flavoring? The leaves are beautiful so I would like to use them!

 

[big brown horse]

I know this is simple, but I love my raw celery dipped in peanut butter! Crunchy only. Add a few raisins and youv'e got yourself a yummy "ant canoe"!

That was my most immediate thought on how to use my celery, but I didn't remember the raisins.

Hattie -- thanks for the tip about drying some for later use. So I can use dried leaves for flavoring? The leaves are beautiful so I would like to use them!

I always use the leaves in my soups. I make "trinity" with celery (stalks and leaves), onions, carrots for almost all of my soups.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Hi DrakeMaiden

Yup! Use them either fresh or dried. They taste exactly the same as the stems (just when dried they taste stronger in the same way dried herbs do). I keep the dried ones in a large glass jar along with my jars of herbs.

I also dry all my mushroom stalks & peelings & when they are completely dried I blitz them to a powder to add to soups & stews.

In fact when I shared a house with someone who had two very faddy teenage children who would not eat most vegetables I dehydrated a variety of vegetables, blitzed the lot & made homely stews, pot-roasts & pasta dishes to feed them with -- they downed the lot & asked for second helpings.........!!! No excuses for not getting their "5-a-day " quota -- they never knew it was in there (until they became adults with children of their own)!

Some people use this vegetable powder rather than a lot of salt if they are trying to cut back. They sprinkle it over the cooked food.

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[DrakeMaiden]

BBH -- I had not heard of this "trinity" of which you speak, I will have to look it up further.

Hi Hattie! I'm not surprised that the teenagers enjoyed your cooking. No one can resist well-prepared real food! Thank you, I will never waste a celery leaf again!

Thank you everyone for the input! I have decided to tackle the green chili enchilada project. I am considering adding a few green tomatoes to the dish too. Anyone have an opinion on that? Better warn me now, if you think it is a bad idea!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

So I looked up the trinity of celery, onion, and carrot, and I thought the article I pulled up was interesting. I figured I should share it with those of you who like to cook, in case you haven't heard of it either.

 

[big brown horse]

See, pretty cool hua? Lots of Louisanna folks infiltrated TX through out the ages. I have quite a few Cajun recipes under my belt. (I love to make seafood gumbo! )

I didn't know other cultures had a trinity of their own, thanks for sharing!

Hattie, that is a wonderful idea about dehydrating mushroom stems etc. I am going to try it!

 

[big brown horse]

Are you using the green tomatoes as a sub for the tomatillas? (Yes, I'm sure I misspelled that one!)

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Well, I found a buncha different recipes for the enchilladas . . . I chose one that was a little on the simpler side, so it did not have the tomatillos in it. (I didn't want to buy a bunch of ingredients just to try this dish). So the green tomatoes are just sort of a filler, because I will be making it without chicken and just want to generally mess around with different vegetables in the enchilladas.

Wait, I just spelled it enchillada!

 

[big brown horse]

Well, I found a buncha different recipes for the enchilladas . . . I chose one that was a little on the simpler side, so it did not have the tomatillos in it. (I didn't want to buy a bunch of ingredients just to try this dish). So the green tomatoes are just sort of a filler, because I will be making it without chicken and just want to generally mess around with different vegetables in the enchilladas.

Wait, I just spelled it enchillada!

It is Friday. I think it was a Freudian typo!