Celery
Celery plants are long green stalks with light green leaves. Celery stalks are fiberous and stringy, some people enjoy their celery more when peeled. Celery stalks and leaves are both edible and impart great flavor to your dishes.
Celery is often found on your veggies and dip platter. It can be chopped and used in soups or stews, sliced and tossed in a salad, or filled with peanut butter for a quick snack. Springdell celery is different from the celery you think about from the grocery store. Springdell celery is best cooked. It is super strong in flavor and a bit tough to eat raw. Once it is cooked up this stuff is awesome, adding so much flavor to a dish!
Celery is best stored in cold water. Fill a cup with water and place celery, cut at the base, inside the cup in the fridge. Celery will stay fresh and crunchy for 1-2 weeks with this method if you change the water every 2-3 days! You can also wrap the celery with wet paper towel and place in the fridge. Celery can also be blanched and frozen (see Jess’ description below).
Hi everyone! Jess here to talk about freezing celery. I’ve had good luck freezing Springdell celery (including the separated tops) for later use in soups and stocks. I blanch them for a minute or two (many folks do three minutes). Blanch them prior to freezing if you plan to not use them within a month or two. If you are planning on using them sooner, you can get away with not blanching the celery.
I recommend chopping the celery and leaves and then spread them on a cutting board or cookie sheet (any flat surface will do to help keep the pieces separated) in the freezer. Once frozen, then you can pop the celery pieces into a plastic bag and use as desired. When time allows, I separate the celery pieces into wax paper parcels of 1/4-1/2 cup, making it easier to measure out and throw into my dishes straight from the freezer. Some people skip the pre-freezing process and measure out 1/4-1/2 cup servings into a muffin tin prior to freezing, then toss the muffin tin into the freezer to create measured cubes of celery. Whatever your method, this is a great way to stretch the very short celery season!
I concede that slow cooking collard greens next to a piece of meat for hours is an amazingly delicious way to enjoy them, and totally worth the time involved. A side product is a soup base for other recipes, so it’s like preparing two meals in one! Kale, Chard, or Mustard greens (or any combo therein) can easily stand in for the collards.
These chivey wonders went fast! You can use Old Bay Seasoning or whip up your own. Though these only take a few minutes to cook, allow some chilling time to firm up the cakes before frying.
Lamb rib racks are great. They are inexpensive, and make a wonderful stock for other recipes. The stock is not gamey and is a great substitute for beef stock (even preferred to beef stock as it is so flavorful). This post talk you through making an easy slow cooker stock with lamb rib racks, with a link to an Irish lamb stew to make with it.
