Seasonal local food recipe No.255 – Nigel’s celeriac and potato cake
This side dish from Nigel Slater’s classic Real Good Food. It’s delicious served with roast meat but can also be served as a main course on its own.
Serves: 4 as a side dish
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
500g waxy potatoes, peeled
a medium-sized celeriac, peeled
90 g butter
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
2 heaped tablespoons Dijon mustard
a level teaspoon of thyme leaves
60ml vegetable stock
a handful of dill leaves
Method
Slice the potato and celeriac so thinly you can see through them. Mix them together and soak in cold water. Melt the butter in a metal-handled, deep frying pan (one that can go in the oven) and when it starts to bubble add the garlic and cook slowly for five minutes, till it is soft and has perfumed the butter. Take off the heat and stir in the mustard, thyme leaves and a grinding of salt and pepper.
Drain the potatoes and celeriac and dry them on kitchen paper. Toss them in the mustard butter so that they are wet all over, then loosely flatten them and pour in the stock.
Cover with a circle of greaseproof paper, then bake in an oven preheated to 190°C/Gas mark 5 for an hour and ten minutes, until tender to the point of a knife. Remove the greaseproof, turn up the heat to 220°C/Gas mark 7 and bake for a further ten minutes, until coloured and lightly crisp on top. Tear the dill up a bit and scatter it over the top and into the juices.
