Take two umami powerhouses and wed them with moist heat and you get a dish of extreme simplicity that’s astonishingly flavorful. Sonoko Sakai is a Japanese friend who is a gifted teacher. Listen to her talk about making Dashi here.
Change Up:
Because I’m lucky and live in SoCal I had some purple carrots in the fridge. So I initially thought that the purple of the carrots would look striking against the pale celadon of the celery. But then I realized that the color would bleed off the carrots and might tint the celery and/or make an interesting broth. You could add herbs or chopped carrot tops for flavor or julienne of orange carrots. As for the Dashi Vinaigrette, you could always add a bit of miso for sweetness or gochujang or sriracha for heat.
Also, I don’t know about you, but that photo of the raw celery and purple carrots makes me want to make a salad with those two ingredients and maybe some shaved parmesan and carrot tops.
Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 30 minutes |
Servings | 4 as appetizer |
- 1 bunch celery
- 2 cups Dashi
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 cups reserved broth
- 1-2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 hard boiled egg peeled
- celery seeds for garnish
- 2 cups water
- piece konbu approx 3 X 2
- 1/4 cup bonito flakes loosely packed
Ingredients For Braising Celery
Vinaigrette and Garnish
Dashi
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- Trim bottom of celery stalks by cutting off the base. Trim tops and wash really well. Save tender inner stalks for another use. Peel the celery strings with a vegetable peeler. Cut stalks in half crosswise
- When ready to serve carefully lift the celery out of the broth and place on serving plate. Pour excess broth into measuring cup.
- Whisk broth and sesame oil together. Pour over celery. Grate hard boiled egg over dressed celery. Garnish with celery seeds.