Things to do with green stuff (3)

Lets be straight about this, celery is DULL - what on earth can you do with it?

I suppose you can eat it raw, perhaps put a bit of cream cheese on the top and then eat it.  That is about it, apart perhaps from the rather nice celery you can buy in cans.

Alas, for the Atkineer, soup from cans is not good, so we have to be a little bit more creative.  So I had a poke about on a few village websites from Eastern England and found a way of dealing with celery that makes it somewhat more glamorous.  Needed a tiny bit of adapting as the breadcrumbs suggested were a real no-no.  But now celery is looking GOOD.

1 large head of celery, trimmed

1.25 ml (1/4 tsp) ground allspice

2 garlic cloves, skinned and crushed

300 ml (10 fl oz) cream

salt and pepper

50g grated cheese

1. Reserve a few celery leaves to garnish, then cut the sticks lengthways into thin strips. Cut each strip into 5 cm (2 inch) lengths and put into an ovenproof serving dish.

2.   Mix the allspice, garlic and cream together and season to taste. Pour over the celery.

3.   Bake at 200°C (400°F) mark 6 for about 1 1/4 hours or until the celery is tender.

4.  When the dish is ready, sprinkle with the grated cheese and put under a hot grill until the cheese is bubbling.

Serve hot, garnished with the reserved celery leaves.