Sunday, November 24, 2013, 10:45a.m. Thanksgiving can be a memorable day for good food, conversation, and connecting with friends and family. But when you're the host, how do you juggle the planning, shopping, and hosting and have all the cooking timed out perfectly? Never fear. Burlington Free Press Features reporter Sally Pollak has some advice from the experts.
The VPR Cafe is produced in collaboration with The Burlington Free Press and is made possible on VPR by J.K. Adams in Dorset and TheKitchenStoreOnline.com.
Celery Root Salad
I always thought of this as a family recipe that originated with my grandmother. But my uncle Peter Weiss of Chester, Vermont, told me his recipe is “stolen directly” from the 1966 edition of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. “Tis a moderate amount of trouble and worth every bit of it,” Peter said. The hardest part is cutting the root vegetable in one-eighth-inch matchstick strips. Start by cutting it in half, and go from there. - Sally Pollak
Peel celery root and cut in one-eighth-inch matchsticks. Plunge the batch into big pot of salted boiling water for two minutes. Remove, drain and add to a warmed bowl in which you have made a mustard sauce:
4 tablespoons of strong Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons boiling water, added slowly while whipping
Slowly add one-third to one-half cup olive oil, while whipping
2 tablespoons wine vinegar, and salt and pepper
Fold in the celery root and marinate a few hours or over night
-- From Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Alfred A. Knopf, 1966
