Tomato Braised Celery

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you will find fresh eggs and pastured chicken, beef, pork, and lamb from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company, and plenty of fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm including sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, delicata squash, potatoes, leeks, and celery.

Celery is typically relegated to a supporting role in soups and stews, but apparently for Victorians it was a luxury ingredient displayed ostentatiously in special celery vases. For my beautiful Camas Swale celery bunch, I took inspiration from this tribute to long-cooked vegetables by Samit Nosrat in the New York Times, which reminded me of a Marcella Hazan recipe, deemed genius by food52. Hazan's recipe calls for pancetta to add some umami to the tomatoey braising liquid, but I opted for a few anchovy fillets because I love the flavors of celery and seafood.

If you, like me, happen to have momentarily succumb to the illusion that a kitchen appliance will solve all of your problems associated with anxieties about the impending school year, noxious smoke-filled air, and natural disasters related to climate change, and you recently invested in an Instant Pot, you could use it for this recipe. You could also cook this on the stove top. Either way, it is delicious and very soothing. 

Tomato Braised Celery

adapted from Marcella Hazan

1 bunch celery
2 large shallots, peeled and diced
1/4 cup olive oil
4 anchovy fillets in oil
15 ounce can of peeled and diced plum tomatoes, with their juice
red pepper flakes to taste
salt to tatse

1. Cut off the celery's leafy tops, saving the leaves for another use, and detach all the stalks from their base. Use a peeler to pare away most of the strings, and cut the stalks into pieces about 3 inches long (cutting on a diagonal looks nice). Alternately, if you plan on cooking long past tender (an hour or more), you can skip peeling the strings. 

2. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Put in the oil and the anchovies and cook, breaking up the anchovies, until they dissolve into the oil. Add the red pepper flakes and stir, and then add the diced shallots. Cook until the shallots are cooked through and golden. 

3. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the celery, and salt, and toss thoroughly to coat well. Adjust heat to cook at a steady simmer, and put a cover on the pan. After 15 minutes check the celery, cooking it until it feels tender when prodded with a fork. The longer you cook them, the softer and sweeter they will become. If while the celery is cooking, the pan juices become insufficient, replenish with 2 to 3 tablespoons of water as needed. If on the contrary, when the celery is done, the pan juices are watery, uncover, raise the heat to high, and boil the juices away rapidly.

To make in an Instant Pot:
Perform step 2 using the Saute function. Press cancel, add the remaining ingredients for step 3, then cook with the pressure cooker function on low pressure for 15 minutes and allow the pressure to release naturally.

Celery Beef Lettuce Wraps

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can look forward to the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm, Fair Valley Farm, and Tiger Lily Art Company:

heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (make pasta primavera)

Honeydew melons and cantaloupes 

Sansa apples from SLO Farm (make some roasted apple sauce)

peaches and Bartlett pears from the Columbia Gorge

corn and a new crop of green beans (make a green bean and almond salad)

pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (add to pasta sauce)

cucumbers and zucchini (make some tsukemono pickles) 

carrots, cabbage, and kohlrabi (make some kimchi)

French sorrel and cutting celery (use in this stir fried beef)

new potatoes and beets (make a frittata)

fresh herbs including dill, parsley, basil, and cilantro (garnish these lettuce wraps)

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces (make these lettuce wraps)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make a grain and chickpea salad)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (make five spice chicken)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

In anticipation of the start of the 4J School District school year next Tuesday (all paltry 166 days of it) I've been trying to remember some of the family's favorite quick weeknight meals. One new one to add to the rotation came from my continued experimentation with cutting celery. In Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, I read that cutting celery resembles Chinese celery, which is often paired with beef, as in her Sichuanese "send-the-rice-down" chopped celery and ground beef recipe. I tried this combination with some of our ground beef from our Fair Valley Farm CSA. To make it kid-friendly, I kept out the chili bean paste, and to make it even kid-friendlier, serves it as filling for lettuce wraps with fun toppings including crushed peanuts (for the kids) and diced red hot cherry bomb peppers (for the adults). Because it was a leisurely summer evening, I also cooked up some of Dunlap's Sichuanese dry-fried green beans and her smoky eggplant with garlic (more on this later), but the celery beef wraps, with plenty of toppings, would make a satisfying and quick meal on their own. I'm always glad that we can ease into the new school year at the height of the harvest season, when the abundance of fresh produce lightens the burdens of fixing quick dinners and filling up lunch boxes.  

Celery Beef Lettuce Wraps

celery beef (adapted from Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking)
1/2 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp grape seed oil
1 tsp ground Sichuan pepper corns
1 bunch cutting celery, or substitute 4 regular celery stalks and leaves, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste (I omitted for a kid-friendly version)
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp black Chinese vinegar

wrap fixings
iceberg or butter lettuce leaves
diced spicy pepper (such as a red hot cherry pepper)
ground Sichuan pepper corns
roasted peanuts, chopped
finely diced lime (with the skin)
cilantro leaves
white rice

To make the celery beef, prepare all of your ingredients and have them on hand. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over high heat. Add the ground beef and stir fry until it is cooked through. Add the chili bean paste and continue to cook until the oil has reddened. Add the ginger, stir fry for a few more moments, and then add the celery. Stir fry until the celery just turns a darker green color, then season with soy sauce and vinegar and remove from the heat.

To serve, pass around lettuce leaves. Everyone can scoop on their desired amount of cooked rice and celery beef, and sprinkle over their favorite combination of toppings.

Cutting Celery in Soup and Salad

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can look forward to the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm, Fair Valley Farm, and Tiger Lily Art Company:

heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (try this soup)

blackberries and cantaloupes (great with pancakes)
peaches and Bartlett pears from the Columbia Gorge
corn (add to fish soup)

pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (add to pasta sauce)

cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, and kohlrabi (toppings for peanut sauce noodles)
cutting celery (add to soups and salads, see below)

new potatoes and beets (build a battery) 

assorted herbs including Italian parsley and 1 lb bags of basil (make pesto)

bietola, kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces including iceberg (try bietola gomae)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (make some lentils with parsley)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (make chicken and rice)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

I'm so grateful to the Fairmount Market farmers who weathered last Sunday's showers to bring us food and flowers that brighten our kitchens and broaden our minds. I'd never tasted cutting celery (or leaf celery or smallage) before, but was eager to try this wild celery variant that is more leaf than stalk. We headed home from the market a little damper than we had started. To warm us up, I cooked some rain drenched tomatoes into a quick pot of creamy tomato soup that tasted perfect for the impending start of the school year. As an afterthought, I chopped up a pesto garnish of cutting celery and walnuts, which added a burst of bright flavor to the silky soup and reminded us that it's still summer vacation. 

The next day, when the sun was shining again, I made a delicious late summer salad of astringent cutting celery leaves and sweet Asian pears, softened with cubes of creamy feta cheese. In soup and salad, these leaves pack a vibrant punch and they are definitely worth walking through the rain to procure. 

Creamy Tomato Soup with Cutting Celery Pesto

serves four

for the soup
12 roma tomatoes
2 Tbsp butter
1 large shallot or small onion
1 clove garlic
1 cup water or stock
1/2 cup milk, half and half, or cream
salt and pepper to taste

for the pesto
1 handful cutting celery leaves 
1 handful walnuts
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp olive oil

1. Peel and dice the onion and garlic. If you like, peel the tomatoes by coring them, scoring them with an "X" at the back end, and blanching them in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin. Chop the tomatoes into 6 to 8 pieces. Set a kettle with 1 cup of water and start warming a soup pot over medium heat. 

2. Melt the butter in the soup pot and add the shallot or onion. Cook until soft, then add the garlic, cook a couple minutes longer, then add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Simmer until the tomatoes have cooked down into a paste, about 15 minutes. Add the water or stock and simmer for 5 more minutes.

3. Blend the soup until smooth in a blender or using and immersion blender. Return to the pot, add the milk or cream, and warm (but don't allow to boil). Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

4. Meanwhile, chop the celery leaves and walnuts together into a coarse pesto and stir together with a pinch of salt and 1 Tbsp of olive oil.

5. Serve the soup warm with a dollop of celery leaf pesto.

Cutting Celery and Asian Pear Salad

2 large handfuls cutting celery leaves
2 Asian pears
juice from 1 lemon
4 ounces feta cheese, cubed
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and plenty of fresh black pepper

Core and slice the Asian pears and toss them in a salad bowl with the lemon juice to prevent then from browning. Toss in the celery leaves and feta cheese. Whisk together the vinegar and olive oil and pour over the salad. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Roasted Tomato Fish Soup

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market you can look forward to the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm, Fair Valley Farm, and Tiger Lily Art Company:

heirloom tomatoes, romas, and tomato deals: 10 lbs/$18, $20 lbs/$30 (try this fish soup)

blackberries and cantaloupes (make chocolate blackberry pudding) 

pepperoncini, poblanos, red hot cherries, anaheim chiles, and assorted pepper bargain bags

eggplants, fresh spring garlic, and onions (make ratatouille)

cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, and kohlrabi (make some Pad Thai)

cutting celery, new potatoes, and beets (make a salad smorgasbord) 

assorted herbs including Italian parsley and 1 lb bags of basil (make pesto)

kale, chard, and a variety of lettuces including iceberg

bietola (Italian chard/beet green, delicious in salads)

dried beans and grains from Camus Country Mill (pick up some chickpeas for falafel)

jams, salsa, and pickles from Sweet Creek Foods

pastured chickens from Fair Valley Farm (try spatchcocked)

floral arrangements from Tiger Lily Art Company

Any recipe that calls for canned tomatoes can be transform by using fresh roma tomatoes at the peek of summer. For this summer fish soup, prepared in a minimal beach house kitchen with my sister-in-law, we made a intensely tomatoey base by slow roasting romas, garlic, and spicy peppers. With all of the rich flavors of summer, we didn't need any spices other than a sprinkle of salt.

Roasted Tomato Fish Soup

serves 4

3 lb roma tomatoes (~18)
4 cloves garlic
2 medium hot peppers
2 ears corn

2 medium leeks

4 carrots

4 stalks celery

olive oil
8 ounce bottle clam juice
1/4 bottle white wine
1 lb firm white fish such as cod
12 jumbo shrimp
salt
flat leaf parsley, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat a couple of baking dishes with a thin layer of olive oil. Halve and core the tomatoes, rub the cut sides in the olive oil, turn them facing upwards, and sprinkle with salt. Halve and seed the peppers and add them to one of the pans, along with the unpeeled cloves of garlic. Slow roast for about 40 to 50 minutes, until the tomatoes are completely softened and collapsed. Let the vegetables cool enough to handle. Peel the garlic cloves and mince them, along with the peppers. If you like, you can easily slip off the tomato skins, or keep them on and coarsely chop. Reserve the chopped vegetables to add to the soup.

2. While the tomatoes are roasting, you can make a quick stock for the soup and chop all the rest of the vegetables. Cut the corn kernels from the cobs. Reserve the kernels and add the cobs to a 6 quart pot. Rinse the leeks well, dice the white parts for the soup, and coarsely chop the green parts and add to the pot. Rinse and trim the celery stalks, dice the stalks for the soup, and add the tops to the pot. Scrub the carrots, peel and dice, and add the peels to the pot. If you like, you can peel the shrimp and add the peels to the pot (but if you are on vacation, leave the peeling for each person at the dinner table). Add 4 cups of water and a generous pinch of salt to the stock pot and then simmer the stock on medium low for about 30 minutes. Strain the stock into a large bowl or another pot and reserve (you should have 2-3 cups). 

3. Now start the soup. Heat a large soup pot over medium heat. When it is warm, add a generous glug of olive oil (about 3 Tbsp). Add the diced leeks and saute until soft, about five minutes. Add the celery and carrots and saute for another five minutes. Now add the chopped tomatoes, peppers, and garlic. Use a ladle full of stock to rinse the pans in which you roasted the tomatoes and add this to the soup pot. Add the clam juice, a quarter bottle of white wine, and enough stock to create the consistency of a thick soup.  Simmer on low for about fifteen minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed. At this point you could turn off the soup and finish it later.

4. Shortly before you want to eat, finish the soup. Rinse the seafood and chop the fish into 1 inch chunks. To the simmering soup, add the corn kernels, then the fish pieces, and then the shrimp, letting it return to a simmer after each addition. Cover and simmer for about five minutes until the shrimp are pink and cooked. Taste once more and add a splash more white wine or pinch of salt as needed. Turn off the soup and sprinkle generously with freshly chopped parsley. Serve with plenty of crusty bread.

Kimchi and Bo Ssam

It's official: the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is over for the season. You can catch some culinary action on the corner of Agate and 19th this evening at the Dia de los Muertos Festival from 4 to 9 PM. If you are suffering from a sense of loss over the end of your summer Sunday routine and the passing of the sunny days, here is my prescription: be sure to preserve some of the last of fall's harvest for the rainy days ahead.

With a final collection of Sweetwater Farm's produce -- arrowhead cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, celery, green onions, and garlic -- I made a delicious version of this kimchi. 

We turned on the oven for the slow roasting of a sweet and salty slathered pork shoulder, following this Bo Ssam recipe from David Chang's Momofuku. 

And we enjoyed these delicious lettuce leaf packets of tender pork and rice topped with a little bit of preserved harvest.

Kimchi and Bo Ssam

Kimchi
follow this recipe from Momofuku, using the following vegetables:
1/2 small cabbage, cored and chopped into small strips
1 kohlrabi, peeled generously and cut into matchsticks
2 big or 4 small carrots, scrubbed and cut into matchsticks
2 big or 4 small celery stalks, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

Bo Ssam
follow this recipe from Momofuku. We used a smaller pork shoulder, but cooked it for almost as long to achieve the "souffle effect" when the meat is falling apart and the fat starts to bubble.

Serve on tender lettuce leaves with a scoop of white rice, a couple forkfuls of pork, and a generous dollop of kimchi.