Ugly Beautiful

Celeriac may be the ugly duckling of the vegetable world but with a gentle nudge in all the right places, she scrubs up rather well. I find she looks particularly good mashed with large dollops of cream or butter but unlike her infinitely more popular friend the ubiquitous spud, she has one extra little trick up her sleeve - celeriac tastes pretty darned good raw.

Following yet another week of mono-chrome weather and binging on butter laced carbs in a bid to turn my February frown upside down, I thought it time to rein in a bit… a week on and the sun now shining this is a perfect inbetweeny salad to see me through to Daffodil season. It has a enough stodge to satisfy but not enough to bring on the bikini sweats and is the perfect thing to sex up weekend left overs, especially meat. Also pretty good eaten straight from the bowl in a greedy hurry, or in a lunch box.

You need:

Big hunk of celeriac, maybe half of one, with all the unsightly dry skin warts and knobbles trimmed off, then grated

1 largeish apple / 2 small (I am a Cox girl myself but Russets would also be good – nothing too sweet), grated (skin on is fine).

Dollops of: Crème fraiche, horseradish, French mustard, good mayo (you can adjust the ratio to suit your tastebuds, - I personally prefer big on horseradish and crème fraiche, less on the others, but up to you) – you need enough to coat, but not drown the celeriac and apple

Lemon juice, a gutsy squeeze of

Salt and Pepper

Barely need to explain what to do – mix it all together and see how pretty she looks. Eat.

Other ugly beauties I found this week.....