Celery

Description: A solitary stick of celery sitting on a plate is a cliche of being on a diet, in fact the action of chewing celery can butn more calories than you would gain from eating it. The most popular varieties are green and white. If you find that your celery sticks have gone a bit they can be resurrected by wrapping in kitchen roll and standing upright in water.

In Season: September - February

Preparation: It is most commolnly eaten raw and goes very well with cheese dishes such as a ploughmans. A particular treat is the hard white root at the base of the stems, although many growers will sadly discard this as part of the trimming process. Celery can also be very tasty chopped up and used as an ingredient of soups or stews.

Recipe: Celery Soup
1.5 oz butter
1 head celery
1 onion
1 rasher streaky bacon
1 oz flour
1 pint chicken stock
0.5 pints milk
5 tablespoons single cream
Finely chop the celery, onion and bacon. Melt butter in a large saucepan and cook the celery, onion and bacon until soft. Add the flour and cook for a further minute, stirring continuously. Add the stock, bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes. Add the milk plus a pinch of caster sugar and seasoning to taste, then simmer for a further 15 minutes. Pour the soup into a blender and puree. Add most of the cream and re-heat, but don't boil. Serve with the remainder of the cream swirled as garnish plus a sprinkling of grated cheese.