Roasted Garlic and Celeriac Soup with Wild Mushroom Ragout

'Blue Ginger: East Meets West cooking with Ming Tsai'
By Ming Tsai and Arthur Boehm
(Clarkson Potter)

By Wendy Wolfenbarger
CNN Interactive Food Editor

My chef-friend Ken Oringer and I came up with this earthy puree while at the restaurant Silks in San Francisco.

The idea of a root vegetable soup had been knocking around my head for a while; I've loved celeriac ever since I first had it in France with sauce remoulade, a classic pairing. Celeriac's special celery-parsley taste is ideal for soup, especially when combined with roasted garlic for its mellow pungency and with celery (a favorite Chinese vegetable) for its fresh flavor note. Finished with crisp celeriac chips for great textural interest, this soup pleases everyone. -- Ming Tsai

• 8 whole heads garlic
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, plus additional for deep-frying
• 3 large onions, roughly chopped
• 6 cups chopped celeriac (about 5 peeled heads) plus 20 paper-thin slices
• 1 cup chopped tender celery (the pale inner stalks from 1 large head)
• 10 cups chicken stock or low-sodium canned broth
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup Wild Mushroom Ragout
• ¹/₄ cup Scallion Oil

Makes 8 to 10 serving

To prepare: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice the tops off the garlic heads and fit the heads into a baking dish just large enough to hold them. Drizzle lightly with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover tightly with foil and roast until the garlic is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Allow to cool, then squeeze the softened cloves into a small bowl. Reserve.

Heat a soup pot over high heat. Add the 2 tablespoons of canola oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the pot. When the oil shimmers, add the onions and sautee, stirring, until very brown, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted garlic, the chopped celeriac, and celery and sautee over medium heat, stirring, until starting to soften, about 8 minutes.

Add the chicken stock and season with the salt and pepper to taste. When the stock boils, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until the celeriac is very soft. Transfer the soup to a food processor and puree in batches, adding the butter gradually by tablespoons through the feed tube. Correct the seasonings and keep hot.

Fill a small fryer or heavy, medium pot one-third full with canola oil and bring to 300 degrees Fahrenheit over high heat. Add the celeriac slices and fry, turning once, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels and season immediately with salt to taste.

Ladle the soup into soup plates. Garnish each serving with a heaping tablespoon of wild mushroom ragout and celeriac chip, drizzle with a teaspoon or so of scallion oil, and serve.

xxxxxxxx
date
xxxxxxxx
date
xxxxxxxx
date

xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.