Thursday, October 29, 2015

Just a recipe, no blather

way too much blue cheese in this shot
I'd never try to persuade you that the celery and blue cheese bruschetta from River Cottage Veg Every Day is one of the world's great sandwiches because it so obviously isn't. But if you're looking for a tasty new lunch that takes about 3 minutes to make and involves ingredients you might actually have around, here you go. Don't be put off by the centrality of boring celery. This open-faced sandwich is salty, zesty, refreshing, crunchy, a little creamy, a little sweet. Yum. I've been eating it every day.

Celery and blue cheese bruschetta

1-2 inner stalks celery (i.e. not big, stringy ones)
slice crusty bread (i.e. not soft sandwich bread)
clove garlic
olive oil
small amount of blue cheese (I'd say about 3/4 ounce depending on strength of cheese)
honey
salt and pepper

Thinly slice the celery at an angle. Toast bread. Rub garlic over rough surface of bread. Drizzle with olive oil. Pile on celery. Crumble blue cheese on top. Not too much! The recipe as printed in the book calls for far too much. Drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. You won't think you need the salt and pepper, but it really makes a difference. Kind of messy, but good.



23 comments:

  1. Hey, I come here for the blather!

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  2. Me too -- we like the blather.

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    1. Me too! Your blather is the best blather. I'm going to go out on a limb here and posit that you are to food blogging what Bill Bryson is to travel writing. I'm your advocate.

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    2. All that of above plus the fact that you are absolutely my favorite author of the contemporary domestic vignette! You reign in your kingdom, Queen Jennifer. We, your humble subjects only present ourselves for an audience with you!

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  3. I love celery and this is a great new way to use it! I'm a little leery of the honey, only because I don't really like it, but I think I could work out a substitute -- like maybe some grated apple. Yum.

    This too (like Ruth Reichl) seems like a refreshing antidote to Prune.

    Last night I saw David Lebovitz and Yotam Ottolenghi at City Arts and Lectures. I am big fans of both and it intrigued me that they were sharing a stage. I didn't particularly love the moderator, but it was an interesting evening. I came away thinking that David Lebovitz is like a kindly grandfather welcoming you into his home with a nice piece of cake, and Ottolenghi is like some sort of intellectually searing uncle who expects you to make a new cake he's never eaten every time you come over to his house. This paints Ottolenghi in a not particularly favorable light but the contrast between the two of them, side by said and answering questions, was hard to miss. It didn't change my overall opinion of either of them but I mention it here because G. Hamilton and Ottolenghi are maybe cut from similar cloth, though Ottolenghi has the skills to put a more "likable" gloss on his work. I wouldn't necessarily have put them in the same category before hearing him talk last night. Did you go? Would love to hear your thoughts!

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    1. I didn't go to the panel, but it sounds interesting and it sounds like a valid comparison -- Ottolenghi = Hamilton, Reichl = Lebovitz. My friend called GH an "art monster" and I've been thinking about that for the last week or so -- I think it's true. She has a "perfectly bent" vision and she's all about that vision -- not about feeding, nurturing, sharing, charming. She herself is perfectly bent. I think GH has the skills to put a likable gloss on her work -- I don't think she wants to. That's part of the "perfectly bent."
      This comment probably sounds like the muttering of an insane person -- "art monster," "perfectly bent."

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    2. Hmmm. Art monster. Did your friend mean sacred monster? Or maybe art monster's a term I'm unfamiliar with.

      I think your blather is excellent, BTW.

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  4. Finally, a use for all the celery from my CSA box. P.S. I like this post as well as the more chatty ones (is that what is meant by "blather"?).

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  5. More blather soon please!

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  6. Missing your posts...

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  7. معمولا در هر اداره دیده ام یک راهبند اتوماتیک نصب کردن قیمتش چنده؟ مشخصات فنی راهبند در قالب کاتالوگ عرضه شده است ریموت مارک جنیوس خیلی سخت پیدا میشه. فیلمبرداری 2 دوربین بگیر و اگه مراسمت مختلط باشه اگه پروجیپ هم بگیری خیلی خوبه دنبال یه آتلیه عروس حرفه ای ف با دکور های شیک هستم،دوستان خواهش می کنم بهم معرفی کتید . قیمت ورودیه آتلیه عروس و اسپرت چقدره ؟

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