Ingredient: Celery
Category: Vegetables
Season: All
Celery (Apium graveolens) is a plant species in the family Apiaceae, which yields two important vegetables celery and celeriac.
Celery is used around the world as a vegetable, either for the crisp petiole (leaf stalk) or fleshy taproot.
In temperate countries, celery is also grown for its seeds, which yield a valuable volatile oil used in the perfume and pharmaceutical industries.
Celery seeds can be used as flavouring or spice either as whole seeds or, ground and mixed with salt, as celery salt.
Celery salt can also be made from an extract of the roots.
Celery Salt is used as a seasoning, in cocktails (notably to enhance the flavour of Bloody Mary cocktails), on the Chicago-style hot dog, and in Old Bay Seasoning.
Celery is one of three vegetables considered the holy trinity (along with onions and bell peppers) of Louisiana Creole and Cajun cuisine. It is also one of the three vegetables (together with onions and carrots) that constitute the French mirepoix, which is often used as a base for sauces and soups.
Nutrition
There is a common belief that celery is so difficult for humans to digest, that it has 'negative calories' because human digestion burns more calories than can be extracted, however at only 6 calories per stalk, the effect is negligible. Celery is still valuable in diets, where it provides low-calorie fiber bulk.
Celery is as English as the Stilton cheese it’s often partnered with: fresh, crunchy and crisp in the autumn, it is perhaps enjoyed best of all with a good cheese board, some fresh-shelled walnuts and a glass of vintage port.
Originally, the older varieties of so-called ‘dirty’ celery from the flat black-earthed Fenlands of East Anglia had a short season – from October to January.
If you’re lucky enough to eat some, there is much washing to do, but the flavour is exceptional, particularly after a light frost, when it’s sweetest of all.
However, a really severe frost can wipe the whole crop out, so growing it can be a hazardous occupation, and in the past during hard winters there was sometimes none available.
English Fenland growers have overcome this by not only developing new varieties that can be grown in summer, but have also overcome the severities of a British winter by growing English varieties in the warm climate of Spain.
This means extremely good celery is available practically all year round, with a gap from about April to June. If you can get ‘dirty’ celery in November it is worth all the tedious washing, but it’s also good to have English varieties available all year.
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