Celeriac Veloute with truffle foam

Photographer: Adam
12-15 small servings

I have spoken before about my love of celeriac, but alas, it is a long distance love, due to the expense. Luckily, this little recipe only requires a small amount of this delicious vegetable.

A veloute is traditionally a stock dish, but I have added the celeriac to very gently enhance the flavour. The idea of this small course was to cleanse our guests’ palates, ready for the main course. You can make it in advance (up to one day before as long as you store it in the fridge), and warm through prior to serving. The truffle foam is also easy to make; it can also be made in advance (up to 2 hours before) and stored in the fridge. Because you only place a small amount on the top of the veloute immediately before serving, it gets warmed up vicariously.

INGREDIENTS

Celeriac veloute
Truffle oil (for frying)
50g shallots – finely sliced
450g celeriac, peeled and finely chopped
250ml stock (chicken)
250 ml water
100 ml thick cream

Truffle foam
250 ml cream
3 full Agar agar strands broken into quarters
3tbsp best quality truffle oil

METHOD

Celeriac veloute
1. Heat a little truffle oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add shallots. Cook until slightly translucent before adding the chopped celeriac. Turn to low heat.
2. Add stock and water to a separate pan and bring to the oil. Once boiling, add celeriac/shallots to the pan and continue to boil slowly for 3-4 minutes until tender.
3. Blitz with a hand blender, until smooth then add the cream. Leave to cool and keep stored in refrigerator until required.
4. Reheat for 10 minutes prior to serving.

Truffle foam
1. Place cream and agar agar strands in a small saucepan and warm over a gentle heat until agar agar has softened (approximately 5-8 minutes).
2. Discard agar agar strands and add truffle oil to the warm cream. Remove from heat.
3. Use a hand blender to blitz the cream and truffle oil mixture.
Use a slow speed and cover both blender and saucepan with a tea towel to prevent splashing.
4. After 60 seconds there should be a nice foam on the top of the cream. Skim this off and place into a bowl. Repeat this process until the cream mixture isn’t deep enough to be blended/blitzed anymore. Store bowl of foam in the fridge until it is needed.