Holiday mashed potato and celery root

I remember last Christmas, I was shopping for all the supplies needed for Christmas dinner. When I was checking out, the young lady at the register, about 22, said she was just learning to cook with different ingredients. While she was ringing up my groceries, she kept asking questions like, “What’s this?” and “How do you cook that?” But her biggest curiosity was when she picked up the celery root. “Oh my gosh,” she said, “What is that thing?” 

Well, I admit if you have never seen a celery root, they are strange looking. I told her that I was going to make a special version of mashed potatoes for Christmas dinner. She looked like she had her doubts, as she placed the celery root in the grocery bag. Here’s what I did with it.

1 big nasty looking celery root

5 medium potatoes

1 medium onion

10 cloves of garlic

Water

Sea salt

Olive oil

Butter

Smoked paprika

Preparation

Now, if you never looked at a celery root before, it looks like something out of a science fiction/horror film. It is a big gnarly ball, with some tentacle looking things, all twisted up on the bottom, with lots of dirt and gunk between the appendages. You need to peel it, and have a paring knife to cut any dirty nooks off of it. Once you do, cut it into chunks and put it in a pot. 

Peel the potatoes and add them to the pot. Peel the onion and quarter it. Add that to the pot as well. Peel the garlic cloves and add them to the pot. Now add enough water to cover the vegetables. Add a palmful of salt to the water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Let it simmer until the celery root is tender when pierced with a fork, about a half hour. 

Drain the vegetables and return them to the pot. Add a splash of your best olive oil and use a potato masher to mash all the vegetables together. Then use the masher with rapid circular motions to beat the vegetables into a smooth, uniform texture. Place them in a serving bowl or leave them it the pot. Add about three pats of butter and sprinkle on some smoked paprika. 

Serving

Serve a big mound of this winter mash on a plate next to pieces of roast duck - a breast and leg quarter. Add lots of gravy to the duck and a little butter to the mash. Now add a big pile of mixed vegetables (you know, the frozen mix - think Green Giant). Slice some fresh homemade bread and open a bottle of Zinfandel and dinner should be set. 

Broiled lamb chops with mushrooms

As many readers already know, I’m an old grouch who lives alone with my two dogs, Squeeky and Camper. My neighbor down the block has a key to my house, and he takes care of things whenever I’m traveling. Sometimes he ‘drops off’ as well. 

My neighbor has developed a habit of stocking my house with beer when I’m out. I’ll come home and find a case of beer there, which wasn’t there when I left in the morning. He likes to keep a good supply of beer at my house, so he can escape, and have a couple, away from the watchful eye of his wife.

I remember about a year ago, I was away for the weekend. I drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. With Christmas approaching, I offered to drive my son home from college. That Sunday, after I dropped my son off at his mom’s house, I arrived home. I discovered that, not only did my supply of beer increase, but there was a package of large meaty lamb chops in my refrigerator. My neighbor knows I have a real weakness for lamb, and he picked them up for me at the butcher shop. After I called and thanked him, this is how I prepared the lamb chops that night. 

6 giant meaty lamb chops,

Cajun seasoning

Olive oil

Fresh ground white pepper

1/2 lb. sliced shiitake mushrooms

1 cup of white wine

Preparation

Heat a large cast iron fry pan and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Season the chops with cajun seasoning on both sides. Place the chops in the cast iron and place them under a hot broiler. 

When the lamb starts to char on top, remove the pan. Turn the chops over and add the mushrooms around the chops. Return to the broiler. When there is a nice char on the chops, turn them over again and stir the mushrooms as you do. Return the chops to the broiler for a final minute or so until everything is sizzling. 

Set the chops on a serving platter and add the wine to the pan. Bring that to a boil, an stir, scraping up anything that has stuck to the pan. Let the wine simmer for a couple minutes, to reduce, and you are ready to serve.

Serving

Serve these sizzling chops on a plate and smother them with mushrooms. Add a big piled of steamed wild rice and then a huge pile of broccoli seared with onions. Drizzle some of the leftover wine in the pan, over the wild rice, and then sprinkle a touch of soy sauce over the rice. 

I’d start the meal off with a crisp salad. I also recommend setting out a bowl of mixed Italian olives. Finally, I’d open a good bottle of Italian red wine and sit down to your feast! 

A quick pasta to go with sausage and peppers

I was going trough my recipes the other day, and I found my notes for sausage and peppers. After reading it I was in the mood for some all day. I eventually caved in, and went to the local little Italian grocery to pick up some sausage and peppers. Their homemade sausage is still as good as ever. 

Mid afternoon, I couldn’t wait any longer, and I started cooking the sausage, peppers and garlic. Then I heated up more garlic and oil for the pasta. When I sat down, I thought I’d eat about half of it. I was wrong. My eyes were smaller than my stomach. I ate the whole mess. Here’s how I put it together. 

Olive oil, use the good stuff

1 lb. Italian sausage

2 large bell peppers

Lots of garlic

Red pepper flakes

1 lb. Italian egg pasta, one of those funny shaped rolled pastas

Salted water to cook pasta

1 cup of fresh grated parmesan cheese, plus a little extra

3/4 cup of reserved pasta water

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350º. Heat a large cast iron fry pan over medium heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom and then add the sausage. If it is in one ‘rope’, uncoil it a little so it is evenly spread out in the pan. Let that sear while you cut up the bell peppers (into bite-sized pieces). When the first pepper is cut up, turn the sausage over. 

After both sides of the sausage are seared, take a knife and fork and cut the sausage into roughly one inch lengths. Stir and add the peppers. While that’s on the stove, peel, smash and mince four cloves of garlic. Put the salted pasta water on to boil. When the peppers are starting to soften, add the garlic. Stir well and put the pan in the oven, on the top shelf. 

Take a small sauce pan and add about an inch of your best olive oil (roughly about three quarters of a cup). Heat that over medium heat. Smash and mince about four garlic cloves and add those to the oil with some red pepper flakes. If you’re like me, add a lot of red pepper flakes. If you are a little wimpy, add less. Once the garlic is sizzling, turn the heat off and swirl the oil until the sizzling stops. Set that aside. 

When the pasta water is boiling, add the pasta, and a dribble of olive oil, to the water. Cook the pasta until it is just cooked through, so it still has a little chewiness to it. Save 3⁄4 of a cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and place it in a bowl. Add the oil and garlic to the pasta and stir. Now stir in one cup of grated parmesan cheese and add the reserved pasta water. Stir well. Remove the sausage and peppers from the oven and add a bunch of parmesan to that as well. 

Serving

Take a large mound of the pasta and place it on a plate. Now scoop on lots of the sausage and peppers. Make sure you get lots of garlic too. Sprinkle on lots of grated parmesan and maybe a little fresh ground white pepper. Now, set out a bowl of carrot sticks, a bowl of kalamata olives, and slice some fresh baked homemade bread. Pour a bottle of your favorite Italian red wine and your set to feast. For goodness sakes, go back for seconds. It’s good for you! 

Norman's Wednesday night dinner cheese bread

I bake a lot of bread. I don’t think much of it. If I’m making a roast or spaghetti or whatever, I throw ingredients into a bowl and put some bread dough together. There is just something about warm bread, fresh out of the oven, that people love. Of all the breads I’ve made, this is the one that people ask for the most. 

This is my famous cheese bread. Now keep in mind that you can use different cheese too. Provolone, parmesan, swiss, pepper jack or even feta would work. Even just straight cheddar is good. You could also add some cooked Italian sausage with the cheese and call it sausage bread. Or, how about some thinly shaved ham, that can’t be bad. 

4 cups of unbleached bread flour

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1/4 of olive oil

2 tbs. instant yeast

2 cups (approximate) of lukewarm water

1/2 lb. shredded mozzarella

1/2 lb. shredded cheddar

Corn meal

Preparation

Place the flour, sugar, salt, olive oil and yeast with most of the water in your stand mixer (by now I am sure you have gone out and purchased one). Mix it all together with the dough hooks until a dough is formed - again, you may have to adjust the amount of flour and water to get the dough right. If you do, don’t complain, just adjust it. 

Let the dough rise for 30 minutes. Make sure your counter is clean and dry. Lightly flour the counter and roll out the dough until a large oval is formed. By large, I mean very large, almost the width of the counter. Spread the cheese evenly over the dough - but have no cheese on the outer two inches of the dough. Fold this outer edge over the cheese. Now gently roll the dough up like you would roll up a carpet. 

Set the rolled up loaf on a cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Allow the loaf to rise for 30 minutes. Bake the loaf for about 30 minutes at 400º, until it is a nice dark brown. Allow the bread to sit for 15 minutes before slicing. 

Serving

Serve this bread with almost any pasta or, how about serving it with roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed vegetables and a crisp salad! Open a good Cabernet Sauvignon and you’re all set. Now that sounds like a meal!