Curried Celery Food

CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and dice the chicken into large bite-size pieces.
• For the dressing, combine the mayonnaise, wine, chutney, curry powder, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until smooth.
• Combine the chicken with enough dressing to moisten well. Add the celery, scallions, and raisins, and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cashews and serve at room temperature.

CURRIED CELERY

Steps:

• Mix cream cheese, raisins, apple, curry powder, and lemon juice until smooth. Spread onto celery.

CURRIED CARROT SOUP

Steps:

• Preheat medium pot over medium high heat. Add olive oil, butter, onions and carrots and saute 5 minutes. Add 4 cups chicken stock, curry and cayenne, and about 1 teaspoon salt to the pot. Bring to a boil, cover and cook until carrots are very tender, about 15 minutes. Place pot on a trivet next to food processor. Process soup in 2 or 3 small batches until soup is smooth and carrots are fully pureed. Transfer processed soup into a large bowl as you work to make room for more soup in the food processor. Return completed soup to the soup pot and place back over low heat. If the soup is too thick, add remaining stock, up to 2 cups, to achieve desired consistency. Adjust seasonings. Place sour cream in a plastic condiment squeeze bottle or into a medium food storage bag. Cut a very small hole in the corner of the bag with scissors. Ladle soup into bowls and squirt a swirl of sour cream around the bowl from the center out to the rim. Drag a toothpick from the center of the bowls out to the edges, forming a spider web design on soup. Pile a few pieces of cut chives at the center of each bowl to resemble green spiders in their webs! Cool!

CURRIED CELERY

Steps:

• Put celery in a saucepan and add boiling water to a 1/2 inch depth.
• Cover and boil 5 minutes (celery to remain crisp).
• Drain reserving cooking water and set celery aside.
• Saute apples and onion in butter in same pan until onion is transparent.
• Blend in cornstarch and curry powder, cook 2 minutes.
• Add 1/2 cup reserved water and cook 5 minutes.
• Add celery and pepper.
• Can be served hot or cold.

CURRIED CELERY-APPLE SOUP WITH SHIITAKE

Steps:

• Using a mortar and pestle, smash the garlic with 1/4 teaspoon sea salt into a paste.
• Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic paste, miso paste, cumin, curry powder, celery seed, black pepper, 1 tablespoon sea salt, celery, and apple to the skillet; cook and stir until the celery is slightly softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Spoon about half the apple and celery mixture into a blender along with the chicken broth. Hold the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the mixture moving before leaving it on to puree. Pour into a stockpot over medium heat along with the remaining mixture from the skillet, keeping some of the drippings in the skillet.
• Place the skillet over medium heat. Cook the chicken in the drippings until completely browned, about 5 minutes. Pour the water into the skillet and bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour entire contents of skillet into the stockpot along with the shiitake mushrooms. Simmer the soup until the mushrooms have softened, about 20 minutes. Stir the balsamic vinegar and truffle oil into the soup to serve.

CURRIED CARROT SOUP

Steps:

• Cook oil and curry powder in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in carrots, celery and onion; toss to coat in oil. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Stir in broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; let stand 10 minutes. Lay a paper towel over the surface of the soup to blot away the oil that has risen to the top. Discard the paper towel.
• Working in batches of no more than 2 cups at a time, transfer the soup to a blender and puree (use caution when pureeing hot liquids). Return the pureed soup to the pan, place over medium heat and heat through. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

CURRIED APPLE AND CELERY SOUP

Steps:

• 1. Finely chop apple, onion and celery.
• 2. Heat oil in a saucepan on medium heat.
• 3. Add apple, celery, and onion and cook 3-4 minutes.
• 4. Add curry powder and flour, stir through apples and veges, and cook a further 2-3 minutes (careful not to burn the curry powder.
• 5. Add stock and simmer 10 minutes or until apples and veges are tender.
• 6. Remove from heat and blend until smooth (I use an immersion blender). Return to heat and bring to a simmer.
• 7. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.

CURRIED CELERY SALAD

Steps:

• 1. Whisk together the dressing ingredients and set aside.
• 2. In a non-reactive serving bowl combine the celery, garlic and shallot.
• 3. Pour the dressing over the vegetables. Toss to coat. Cover and allow the flavors to marry-at least 1 hour. Just before serving, garnish with the lemon wedges, fresh parsley or cilantro and a *light* sprinkle of red chili pepper flakes.