friday food files with molly watson: Celery Salads.
I love celery. I love the crunch and the crisp and all the water and even the strings you can pull off with your teeth. The slightly grassy, quite watery, herbal flavor pleases me greatly. I ate enough celery sticks when I was a kid to last me a lifetime, but I still cut them up whenever I serve crudités, even if I’m the only one who’s going to eat them.
If you’re stuck in celery-stick mode or tossing a bit of chopped celery into a salad, up the sophistication level a bit with straight-up celery salads. Salads that are almost entirely very thinly sliced celery with a bit of some kind of onion to highlight the delicate flavor of celery and a very light dressing not to overwhelm the delicate flavor of celery.
This celery mint salad is my latest celery creation, just celery and mint and green onion and a bit of champagne vinegar. It based on what we call red onion celery salad at my house, which is a bowl of thinly sliced celery with generous amounts of slivered red onion in it and dressed with ginger and rice wine, itself based entirely on the celery salad served at Eliza’s. If you have your own favorite combination or come up with a riff on one of these, be sure to let me know.
***
Each week, the Friday Food Files are deliciously brought to you by Molly Watson. For more on Molly and her delicious recipes, you can visit her in one of many wonderful places:
Writer: mollywatsonwrites.com
Blogger: thedinnerfiles.com
Recipe Wizard: localfoods.about.com
Radio Girl: eatthatradio.wordpress.com
tweeter: twitter.com/mollywatson
teacher: mediabistro.com/courses/cache/instr404.as
[ Photos courtesy of Molly Watson. ]
That sounds so good! I love celery and I can’t believe I never thought to combine it with onions before because I also love onions. I’ve been putting it in my pasta sauces lately because it adds the crunch I want from my sauces without changing the flavor too much.
that looks delish. i shall try. Thanks v. and molly.
Celery salad, wow! I can’t wait to show this to my mother-in-law. She makes the best stuffed celery I’ve ever had. I beg her to make it a lot — cream cheese and garlic and I don’t know what else but it’s very, very, very delicious.
I love celery! Thanks for these recipes. : D
Love this, can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
I am facing a glut of celery from a CSA I just joined and now I know what to make! I also love celery and have been scooping my homemade hummus up with as much celery as possible. The salad will be kinder to my figure! Sounds so yummy. Thanks!
mmm never thought of celery salad, but looks good!