Winter stew with salsify and carrots, fondant potato, celeriac fritter and sprouts
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Makes: 5 portions
 
Ingredients
Stew
  • 1 kg stewing meat
  • 50 gr butter
  • 2 onion
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 70 gr tomato puree
  • 2 tbspn flour
  • 330 gr beer
  • 300 gr bouillon
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tbspn honey
  • 1 tspn thyme
Fondant potato
  • 10 potatoes
  • 1 tbspn thyme
  • 500 gr bouillon
Vegetables
  • 5 salsify
  • ½ lemon
  • 6 carrots
  • 1 tspn honey
Celeriac fritters
  • 1 celeriac
  • ½ tspn nutmeg
  • 100 gr flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tspn milk
  • 100 gr bread crumbs (panko)
Finish
  • 5 Brussels sprouts
  • 1 salsify
Instructions
Stew
  1. Dice the meat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Brown in a large pan. Remove and set aside for later.
  2. Chop the onion, garlic and carrot. Sweat off in the meat juices until soft. Add the tomato puree and cook or a minute. Add the flour and cook for a minute. Add the beer, the meat and just enough stock or bouillon to cover. Add the bay leaf, honey, thyme and season to taste. Simmer on a low heat for 90 min or until the meat is tender.
Vegetables
  1. Was the salsify under cold running water to remove the soil. Prepare a pot with cold water and the juice of the lemon. Peel the salsify, cut into 5 cm sticks and plunge in the lemony water to prevent discolouration. Bring to the boil, drain, cool under running water and set aside in the cold water for later.
  2. Cut the carrots in similar sticks. Mix with some oil, season to taste, place on a baking tray set aside for later.
Celeriac fritters
  1. Peel the celeriac and cut into cylinders or sticks. Blanch them in boiling salted water until just cooked, drain, cool under running water and pat dry. Get ready three bowls: one with the flour, one with the beaten egg with a splash of milk and one with the bread crumbs. Dip the croquettes in the flour, shake off the excess, then in the beaten egg and finally in the bread crumbs making sure they are nicely coated. Store in the fridge until needed.
Fondant potato
  1. Peel the potatoes, cut the top and bottom off to make them cylindrical.
  2. Heat a layer of oil in the pan and colour the potatoes on one side. Turn them over to cook the other side. The top and bottom should be brown but the inside will be uncooked. Add the butter, thyme and seasoning. Add enough bouillon to come up two thirds the side of the potatoes. Finish cooking in the oven at 180°C for 30 min or until they are cooked and the stock has reduced.
Finish
  1. Taste the stew and correct if needed the seasoning. If the stew is too thin, mix some corn flour with cold water and add to the stew, allowing it to bind over a low simmer.
  2. Roast the carrots in the oven until golden and cooked.
  3. Heat a pot with oil to 180°C. Clean the last salsify as described earlier but do not parboil it. Using a mandolin, cut the salsify into paper thin strips and deep fry them until golden. Drain on paper towel and season with a pinch of salt.
  4. Deep fry the celeriac fritters at 180 °C in a couple of minutes, drain on paper towel and season with a pinch of salt.
  5. Heat a pan with some butter and honey and reheat the precooked salsify and cook until caramelized and golden. Season to taste.
  6. Remove the outer leaves from the Brussels sprouts.
  7. Place the stew on the plate, put the fondant potato around en finish the plate with the salsify, carrots, celeriac fritters, salsify crisps and leaves.
Stuff to know
Use beef or game for the stew.
It is possible, even recommended, to prepare the stew, fondant potatoes, salsify and celeriac fritters ahead of time. Add the bouillon when the fondants are ready to go in the oven. Reheat the stew, roast the carrots and deep fry the fritters when needed.
Preferably, use panko breadcrumbs for the fritters because they give a better result when frying.
The salsify is a rather unknown vegetable that was quite comment before the second world war but who feel out of grace after the war. Preparing the vegetable is a bit tricky. When peeled, a white sticky substance will be released and the white salsify will rapidly discolor, hence the lemony water. Wearing gloves when handling them is a sound precaution. The vegetable is typical for the winter time.

Recipe by Jeroen Valkenier Recipes at https://jpvalkenier.com/winter-stew-with-salsify-and-carrots-fondant-potato-celeriac-fritter-and-sprouts/