Celeriac, Pear & Blue Cheese

Celeriac is one of my favorite vegetables, it is widely used in Middle - Europe. It has a dominant role in the classic Sunday beef or chicken broth, but it can also stand on its own. It has a deep, earthy, celery-like flavor, with a nutty aftertaste. Try it as a cream soup, in slow-cook dishes, you can use it for making chips, julienne it and fry it in oil or simply add it raw to your salad. It's easy to work with and as you see, there is a number of ways you can include it in the menu. It can be paired with various vegetables, it gets on well with beetroot, nuts and cheese.

Celeriac cream:

600 g celeriac (roughly, 1 big or two smaller ones)

120 g butter

500 g milk

large pinch of salt

Cheese balls:

150g cream cheese

200 g cheese of your choice

80 g blue cheese

a handful of walnuts

Caramelized pear:

2-3 pears

fresh rosemary (1 tablespoon)

2 tablespoons butter

Clean the celeriac, peel it and cut it into chunks. Don't worry too much about the size, you'll blend it anyway. Put the butter into a saucepan and melt it at low heat. Add the celeriac and saute it. Add the milk and the salt, bring it to boil, then lower the heat and cook it for about 45 minutes, until the celeriac gets real soft. By then, the milk should be concentrated.

Finely chop the rosemary, peel the pears, remove the seeds and cut them to 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm cubes, or tetrahedrons, if you prefer. Or, as a matter of fact, the combination of the two.

Heat the butter in a saucepan, add the pear cubes and the chopped rosemary. Fry it until it gets a light brown color here and there.

Without adding oil, fry the walnuts in a saucepan, until golden brown. Then chop them fine.

Grate the cheese and combine it with the cream cheese. Add half of the walnut, mix. Wet your hands and form the cheese into small balls, then cover them in chopped walnut.

Using an electric blender, blend the celeriac cream.

Put the cream on the plate, top it with the cheese balls and the pear.