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Celery


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I've rediscovered celery.

Celery and carrot sticks are the way to go in the afternoon for when I get those snack munchies.

I use celery when making roux, soffrito and tuna salad. I've never gotten around to eating them plain or stuffed with peanut butter and/or cottage cheese.

People either hate or love celery. Like eggplant, okra and durian, celery is one of those foods that either inspires aversion or devotion.

So...if you like celery, post here and why. And if you detest celery, post here and why.

Soba

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Celery: low in calories, crispiness good for the soul, versatile in uses, pretty when stuffed (unlike me!!), adds such great taste when used in salads ... I do enjoy celery in all of its forms ... Thanks for asking!

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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I like celery, especially since I read eating it uses up more calories than it contains. That is, if it's eaten plain, & not stuffed with aged cheddar, the way I like it best.... :raz:

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i love celery. the leaves add nuance to sauces, stalks (when stripped of hard strings) add tender crunch and are irreplaceable in cold salads (tuna, shrimp, chicken, lobster) it's also loaded with water, self-salted, and lasts longer than 2 days in the fridge. i'd love a recipe if anyone has a winner for braised celery. i've heard it's revelatory.

celery is the toast of the vegetable world - underappreciated, but highly satisfying.

from overheard in new york:

Kid #1: Paper beats rock. BAM! Your rock is blowed up!

Kid #2: "Bam" doesn't blow up, "bam" makes it spicy. Now I got a SPICY ROCK! You can't defeat that!

--6 Train

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I have a love/hate relationship with celery. In cooking, I find it almost as indispensible as onion--as part of a mirepoix, in salads and sandwiches, in stirfries and soups, etc. I even still like it raw on its own, occasionally. But having been traumatized by a few too many attempts at dieting over the years, I can get into a headspace in which "raw celery sticks = diet trauma = AAAAEEIIIII!!!!" - which is not conducive to happy eating experiences. :rolleyes:

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I would hardly call celery god's gift to hunger. While it's crispy and refreshing, it does nothing to satiate hunger. It's like drinking a glass of water...

"It's better to burn out than to fade away"-Neil Young

"I think I hear a dingo eating your baby"-Bart Simpson

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People either hate or love celery.  Like eggplant, okra and durian, celery is one of those foods that either inspires aversion or devotion. 

So...if you like celery, post here and why.  And if you detest celery, post here and why.

Soba

Okay, for 30 years or so I HATED celery. Then, a few years ago, I discovered why.

Celery goes bad REALLY quickly. Chemical changes start happening in it almost immediately and what many of us have come to think of as the "taste" of celery is actually AFTER this transformation has started.

I've had fresh picked celery in the past few years a few times, and it's an entirely different thing.

Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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I can get into a headspace in which "raw celery sticks = diet trauma = AAAAEEIIIII!!!!"

This is why I didn't snack on celery for years and years - not the celery's fault, but the whole stigma of "diet food". Blech.

But now I enjoy it a lot - maybe my taste buds have matured, but now I taste layers of flavor, some sweet, some more bitter. I like snacking on it, especially if I've put a little peanut butter on one end :-).

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

eGullet foodblog

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I've never liked celery very much. I remember the first time I tasted raw celery was during an open-house for kindergarten....I must've been 4 at the time. The teacher handed me a celery stick smeared with peanut butter and topped with raisins (ants on a log) and I courageously put it in my mouth. The taste-- :wacko: BLEAH! It was just so stringy and watery....I didn't know what to do, so I just kept chewing and chewing until the open-house was over and finally spat it out at home. I had kept that celery in my mouth for over an hour because I didn't want to seem impolite and spit it out in front of my future teacher! :blush:

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I have always liked the salty crunch fest that is celery. I can't help snacking on it while cutting up a mirepoix or trinity. I like it as a snack with pimento cheese or peanut butter. It is indispensible in the basic but oh-so-good tuna and chicken salad.

Then there was the day we were finished frying about a dozen turkeys. The oil was well seasoned by that time. I went into the house and spied the crudite tray that everyone had been avoiding. Heh heh heh. I brought it out and dumped the contents into the hot oil. With a sprinkle of sea salt after draining, cauliflower, brocolli and carrots were quite good. The celery . . . blech!

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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I didn't know what to do, so I just kept chewing and chewing until the open-house was over and finally spat it out at home. I had kept that celery in my mouth for over an hour because I didn't want to seem impolite and spit it out in front of my future teacher! :blush:

That is such a great story, Ling. It reminds me of what being a child was like. But my Mom always gave us celery to keep us quiet when we were begging for food, that or a carrot. I like it alot. What I find weird though, is the smell of it lingers on the hands, even after washing, like onions or garlic. That I don't like :sad:

Emma Peel

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Ah, I haven't had ants on a log in a long time, but it was some good stuff. I love celery to dip into dressings (blue cheese, ranch, etc), and it is an absolute must to be served up side by side with buffalo wings, also to be slathered in that blue cheese dressing.

I love it stuffed with peanut butter, with cheddar, with cream cheese, or just drizzled with hot sauce. I love to scoop up sour cream, guacamole, or both with it. I love it when cooked in soups, stews, or in that trinity in gumbo.

The place I can not abide celery (or apples, grapes, or anything else crunchy and/or sweet for that matter) is in tuna/chicken/egg salad. I love tuna salad, I love chicken salad, but I want them to be mushy, mayo-enriched, salty, spicey affairs, devoid or texture, and celery goes way too far towards adding that forbidden texture.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Love celery, when it's good. Love its crunch, its taste, the freshness of its smell. But so often, much too often, it is bitter and really truly awful. Spit-outable. And I have no idea how to tell the difference when I'm buying it. It's always a gamble. Anyone have any hints?

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I love braised celery and have been making it since I was a child as it was a family favorite.

It is very simple to make. I actually have a few recipes I alternate. The one from the Cuisinart cookbook that was developed by James Beard for them is one.

Last year I tried this one

and it is very like the one I loved as a child.

I sometimes add some toasted pecans over the top of the dish when ready to serve.

Braised celery goes good with other vegetables too. I combined two dishes once, when I didn't have enough of either to make a decent dish. baby carrots glazed with balsamic syrup were alternated in a serving dish with braised celery and it was a lovely combination of flavors.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I usually cut up celery into thin sticks and put them right into a container of cold water in the fridge. After a few hours, they do curl a little, but that strong and bitter taste that Cakewalk mentioned seems to go away. The celery also seems less stringy.

I also put cut up carrot sticks or baby carrots in a separate container of cold water in the fridge. It just keeps them both crisper and they're always handy for snacking. My kids like to take some of each and dip in ranch dressing when they get home from school.

We like celery stalks stuffed with peanut butter or with cream cheese that has some chopped salty green or black olives mixed in. Personally, I love to dip celery into that delicious and fattening Knorr spinach dip.

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I love celery. Before my divorce, I lived in a house full of celery haters. Whenever I brought the celery home from the market, I pulled that sweet, tender heart out and ate it all by myself, because no one else would touch it.

Last Thanksgiving, I got the assignment of making the stuffing for the turkey. I stopped on the way to my mom's and bought the fixings, including a nice bunch of celery. I cut it apart, and proceded to eat the heart, just like usual.

My brother, sitting at the counter working on his own creation, gave me the hairy eyeball and said, "Don't you think that is rude?"

I had no idea what he was talking about, til he pointed to the celery and asked if I didn't think I should share the good part. :biggrin:

sparrowgrass
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I like celery...but it never really works for me, to sate hunger.

I especially like celery root, roasted or with mashed potatoes It's like celery to the seventh power.

I also like Dr. Brown's Celery Soda, which I rediscovered just a few weeks ago.

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A stick, just a stick dipped in sugar. The flavour is intense.

Martial.2,500 Years ago:

If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.

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Love celery, when it's good. Love its crunch, its taste, the freshness of its smell. But so often, much too often, it is bitter and really truly awful. Spit-outable. And I have no idea how to tell the difference when I'm buying it. It's always a gamble. Anyone have any hints?

As long as it's firm and looks good, put its bottoms in water a couple of hours or so before you eat it. I don't think that's a panacea, but it helps.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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I especially like celery root, roasted or with mashed potatoes It's like celery to the seventh power.

I also like Dr. Brown's Celery Soda, which I rediscovered just a few weeks ago.

Not only is celery root excellent, but that bit of the root/stalk convergence always left at the bottom of a bunch of celery to keep it from falling apart is similarly excellent. If you like celery and/or celery root flavor, don't let that celery bunch base go to waste! I usually wind up just cleaning it up a bit and eating it raw as a "cook's reward" snack, but it's also good diced up in anything for which you'd use the stalks or the root proper.

And that Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray is the best, innit? The beverage of choice with a big ol' Katz' Deli sandwich. (Okay, now I've made myself food-homesick again... :sad::laugh: )

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