Braised Celery

This is another from Alice Water’s cookbook:

1 head celery
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thin
2 or 3 thyme sprigs
Salt
1 cup chicken or beef broth

Remove the tough outer stalks of l head celery. Trim the root end close to the bottom of the stalks and cut off the leafy tops. Pull off the outer stalks to expose the pale green heart. Cut the gruup of stalks at the heart in half lengthwise and then in half again as wedges. Line up all the stalks and cut in half crosswise.

Pour oil into a heavy pan and heat to medium. Add onion and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the celery. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until the onions and celery have browned a little season with salt. Add chicken or beef broth. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cove the pan and cook until the celery is tender. The sauce should be thick and coat the celery; if not, uncover the pan, raise the heat and reduce the liquid as much as needed. Taste for salt and serve.

Variation: For a milder dish, blanch the celery for 7 minutes in salted boiling water before browning it with the onions.

RESULTS: I know, sounds weird, right? Well, I thought I'd give it a try, especially since celery is one of those vegetables that you can get in the winter. However, I do not think I did this right. I had issues with browning the celery, it just wasn't working, and one of the wonderful things about braising is the carmelization. It could have been because I used a dutch oven instead of a wide saute pan, and the dutch oven (being taller) held more steam in, so they more steamed instead of browned. Unknown.

Also, there is a rather thick line, not thin at all, between tender celery and mushy celery, and I was well on the mush side of that line. I think the problem with this was that I forgot to put aside the tough outer stalks for some future soup and I included those, so by the time the tender stalks were done, the tough ones hadn't even started.

I'm not going to give up on this one. The flavor was really quite interesting, the onions were a great touch, so I will try it again sometime.