Austro-German Fried Celery Root (Celeriac)

While my recipe below varies a little from the recipe in this book, it was this book, which I've owned for quite a number of years, that gave me the idea to try a recipe for fried celery root, with such recipes not being uncommon in Germany and Austria (maybe Switzerland?). I'm not sure if the book is even available anymore, either in English or in the original German, but if you get a copy, be sure to eat first; otherwise, you'll want to fix every recipe in the book just from seeing the wonderful photographs. "Austria, a culinary tour," by Gerda Rob, translated from German to English by Guthrie Thomson, with photos by Hans Joachim Döbbelin. Sigloch Edition 1994, printed in Immenstadt, Germany, bookbinding in Künzelsau, Germany.

In German, there is no one name for fried celery root. German for celery root/celeriac is properly "Knollensellerie," but in certain contexts you might just see "Sellerie," or other forms like "Zeller," "Wurzelsellerie," or even "Sellerieknolle" (see Word History, below).

Serve with tartar sauce*or ranch dressing,** along with ham, sausages or smoked pork shoulder; that is, cottage ham, and in German "Geräucherte Schweineschulter." ***

Ingredients:

2 celery roots (baseball size), peeled and sliced into about 1/2 inch thick slices
3 tablespoons lemon juice 
1 to 1 1/4 cup flour (divided use)
1/4 cup bread crumbs (I prefer fine breadcrumbs with this, not panko)
2 eggs
1/3 to 2/3 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper 
1/2 teaspoon salt
olive oil for frying

After peeling and slicing the celery root, sprinkle the slices with the lemon juice. Heat enough water in a pan/pot to cover the celery root slices (be sure to pour in the lemon juice from the slices too). Add about a tablespoon of salt and and bring the water to a boil. Simmer the celery root slices until just tender, drain them. Dust the slices on both sides with a little flour. Mix together 3/4 cup flour, breadcrumbs, eggs, pepper, salt, and 1/3 cup white wine to make a batter (if too thick, add a little more white wine). Dip the flour dusted celery root slices into the batter. Fry the slices in preheated regular olive oil until golden brown. I use a skillet, but if you have a deep fryer, great! Drain the fried slices on paper towels and sprinkle with salt to taste. 

* To make your own tartar sauce, here is the link to the recipe:
https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/09/homemade-tartar-sauce.html

** To make your own ranch dressing, here is the link to the recipe:
https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/homemade-ranch-dressing.html 

*** The German word and food product "Katenschinken" is literally the equivalent to English "Cottage Ham," with "Katen" the close relative of English "cott," and "Schinken" the close relative of English "shank;" thus "ham." Cottage hams come from the pork shoulder of the front leg of the pig, while German Katenschinken are from the rear leg of the pig. Katenschinken are a specialty ham product of Holstein in northern Germany, where the small smokehouses were dubbed "Katen" (pronounced much like English "cotton"); the true meaning of which is, like its English cousin, "a small house in the countryside."
 
In this case, I had the Fried Celery Root with ranch dressing and knockwurst ...

WORD HISTORY:
Knoll-This word is related to  "knot," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "gnocchi," a word borrowed by English from Italian, which had gotten it from Lombardic, a Germanic dialect/language. It goes back to an Indo European form of, "gn/kn/gen/ken," which had the notion of "press, pinch into a compressed form or a ball." This gave Germanic a form of (perhaps?) "knuðla" (=knuthla), meaning, "clump, clod, lump." This gave Old English "cnoll," meaning "a hilltop, a mound." The spelling then changed to "knoll." Its German relative is "Knolle," and interestingly, while English speakers saw the "clump, lump" as being on top of the Earth's surface, German speakers saw it as being being below the Earth's surface; that is, "bulbous plant root, tuber." Low German has both "Knüll" (small hill) and "Knoll" (plant root, tuber), Dutch has "knol" (tuber), Old Norse had "knollr" (mountain top, hilltop), but it's unclear to me how, or even if, the word continued into the modern North Germanic languages from Old Norse or was borrowed from other Germanic languages; for instance, Danish uses "knold" for "tuber," and indeed, "knoldselleri" means "celery root," and Swedish has "knöl" (tuber, lump, knob). In American English especially, "knoll" has featured prominently and controversially in the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 in Dallas, Texas, as an area called "the grassy knoll" was a possible site of a shot or shots fired at the president.

Apple & Celeriac Soup

This is a good soup for this time of year. It's best if you can use a blender, but a stick (immersion) blender could work too, although it might take a little time to get the soup to a smooth consistency. If you use tart apples, and you find the soup to be too sour, just add a little honey or sugar, but I doubt it will be a problem.  

Ingredients:

4 to 5 green onions, with some green, chopped
2 apples, cored, peeled or unpeeled, chopped (I leave the peel on)
2 1/2 cups celeriac, peeled and chopped
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 cups apple cider (or apple juice)
5 to 6 sage leaves chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons butter + 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
1 cup milk (I prefer canned milk in cooking, but it's certainly not mandatory)
plain yogurt or low fat sour cream for garnish

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the oil and melt the butter over medium low heat. Cook the onion, apple, celeriac and ginger until the celeriac, especially, is just softening (this will take a little time). Stir it occasionally to prevent any major browning of the ingredients. Then add the apple cider/juice. Let the cider come to a gentle simmer. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes until everything is tender.  Pour the mixture into the blender and blend until smooth. Pour the blended mixture back into the pan. Add chopped sage, thyme, salt. Bring the soup to a bare simmer. Gradually stir in the milk until it is all mixed in. When the soup has returned to a bare simmer, that's it. Serve with a dollop of plain yogurt or low fat sour cream on top of each serving. 

WORD HISTORY:
Slit/Slice-These closely related words go back to Indo European "skel," which meant, "to cut, to cut off," which then produced "skleid," which meant, "to tear off, to tear apart, to cut off, to split apart;" and thus also, "to use up" (likely from the notion of "cutting or breaking off parts until used up"). This gave Old Germanic "slitan(an)," meaning, "to tear off, to tear apart, to split," as well as the figurative "use up" meaning. This gave Old English "slitan," with the same main meanings, but also, "to cut into pieces." This then became "sliten," which kept many of the same meanings, but also, "to wear out or wear down," which likely had been retained in some areas of England as a meaning for the original English form "slitan." This then became "slit." The noun was derived from the verb in the 1200s, with the meaning, "a generally long cut or tear in clothing, which is purely an opening and doesn't detach any part from the main object," but also then, "a long cut in general." The Old Germanic form also gave Frankish, a Germanic dialect, akin to English, "slitan," which also meant, "to split, to split into pieces." This was absorbed into Old French as "esclicier," meaning initially, "to split," and the more figurative "to break or smash into pieces." French also had the noun "escliz/esclis," meaning, "a fragment, a splinter, a piece." English borrowed the noun as "slice" in the early 1400s, and it borrowed the verb, also as "slice," in the second half of the 1400s. The noun and the verb are both examples of Germanic based words being borrowed into Latin-based French, and then borrowed by English, itself a Germanic language. English had its own form in what is modern "slit" (above), but German had "slizan," in Old High German, which then became the more modern (but now not in every day use) "schleissen," pronounced kind of like "shlice-n," and properly spelled "schleißen" and meaning "to split, to wear down, to wear off, to peel off." It is spelled with the double "s" in the Swiss and Liechtenstein spelling systems, but with the "ß" in German spelling elsewhere. Dutch has "slijten," meaning, "to use up, to wear down or away," Icelandic has the noun "slita" (a tear), Danish "slide" (work very hard; that is, wear down or wear out with work), Swedish "slita" (wear out, wear out with hard work).

Scalloped Celeriac & Potatoes

"Celeriac" is also called "celery root" by some, and it looks absolutely awful. If you want to scare someone on Halloween, go out dressed like a bulb of celeriac. Celeriac has a mild taste of celery and it's great in a dish like this. This is a gratin; that is, it has a bit of a crispy topping to it (see "Word History"). 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup celeriac, peeled and sliced or chopped
1 large potato, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped (don't leave big pieces, they take longer to cook)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons (approximately) butter or oil to grease the dish
1 1/4 cup shredded or chopped cheddar cheese or sharp American cheese
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounce)
1/2 to 2/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 to 3 tablespoons butter to top

In a sauce pan over low heat, add the butter and oil. Melt the butter and then gradually whisk in the flour until it forms a roux or paste. Now gradually add the chicken broth, whisking constantly until the broth has been completely added and it is combined and smooth. Now gradually add the milk in the same way, until it too is combined and smooth. Heat the oven to 400 F. In a bowl, mix together the celeriac, potato, onion, garlic, thyme, celery salt, black pepper and chopped parsley. Use some oil or butter to grease a baking dish, then add about half of the celeriac/potato mixture to the baking dish. Pour half of the milk/chicken broth sauce over the celeriac/potato mixture. Add the rest of the celeriac/potato mixture, and then add the rest of the sauce. Lightly shake the dish to make sure the contents settle. Scatter the cheese over the top, then sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the cheese. Cut the butter into small portions and scatter it over the top. Put the lid or aluminum foil over the dish. Bake at 400 degrees (F) for 45 minutes covered, then about 20 to 30 minutes uncovered, or until the potatoes and celeriac are tender, and the topping is somewhat crispy. (NOTE: You can place the dish under the broiler briefly at the end to crisp up the topping, too, but be careful that it doesn't burn; it will need your constant attention.)

WORD HISTORY:
Grate (Gratin)-These words are closely related, going back to Indo European "gred/gret," with the meaning, "to scratch, to scrape." This gave Old Germanic "krattojanan," also meaning, "to scratch, to scrape," and this gave Frankish, a Germanic dialect of western Europe, "kratton," with the same meaning. This was absorbed by Old French, a Latin-based, but Germanic influenced language, as "grat(t)er," with the meaning, "to scrape, to scratch away, to rub or scrape away;" thus, "eradicate;" thus too, "destroy." This was borrowed by English as "grate" ("to scratch, to rub vigorously") in the latter 1300s.^ French also had "gratin," a noun for "crust" ("that which is scraped onto the top of food to form a top crust;" the word "seemingly" formed in the late 1500s?), which was borrowed by English, or at least popularized in English, circa 1800. "Grate" and "gratin"  are examples of  words of Germanic origin that were borrowed into other Germanic languages from a non Germanic-based language; in this case, French. I could not find a word in Old English that was a relative of "grate," or more precisely, Frankish "kratton," although there may have been one that was unrecorded (the common people usually could not read nor write) or that died out, but it seems strange to me, as other Germanic languages had forms. Back then, English used a number of words to say "scratch" or "scrape," including "screpan," which became modern "scrape."   

^ English also has the noun "grate," used for "a grill, a stove or a fireplace," or "a series of crisscrossed bars or strips (usually metal), used as a covering," but it is from a different source (I'll cover this word soon).