CELERY ROOT AND POTATO MASH WITH TRUFFLE SALT

Celery root and potatoes make a most delicious vegetable purée, or mash. There are all kinds of things you can do with it. You can use it to blanket a vegetable shepherd’s pie, or you could flavor the purée with ghee and black garlic, or you could include other vegetables in the mix—turnips, parsnips, and fennel are all delicious. If the purée is thick enough and you have some left over, mix it with some Gruyère cheese, form it into cakes, and brown them in clarified butter. This is very luxurious, rich and good: a perfect small first course. You have to improvise with what you have. If you’re rich with celery root, you might use much more in proportion to potatoes. If you have only a small celery root, know that it will still lend its flavor to the mash; it just won’t be as strong. To me, celery root always cries out for truffle and, since I seldom find (or can afford) a whole truffle, it’s here in the form of truffle salt, added at the end. But this is a fine dish on its own, even without the truffle salt.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Cut the potato and celery root into large pieces. Put each vegetable in a saucepan with cold water to cover and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes for the potatoes and 10 minutes for the celery root, depending on their size. Drain, reserving the cooking water: you can use this instead of milk or cream for thinning the mash, or save it to use as a soup stock.

Step 2

Pass the cooked vegetables together through a food mill or mash by hand, adding warm liquid (cream, milk, or cooking water) to thin them as you go. Taste for salt, season with pepper, and stir in butter to taste. Finally, stir in the celery leaves. You can keep this warm in a double boiler. When you’re ready to serve, scoop the purée into a serving dish and sprinkle generously with truffle salt.