Nut Celery Timbale

This was delicious. It was shockingly sweet, and I never did figure out why. The celery in stew form was perfect - it is the perfect stew vegetable - it has a nice bite, with great chewiness, while also being soft. This was the recipe I kept ignoring last week when I looked at my options. I was looking for something tastier. But this might've been the tastiest thing.

The recipe is originally titled "Celery and Cashew Timbale' but the recipe basically directs you to make a stew and serve with boiled or roast potatoes. So, learning from previous after-the-fact-googlings, I googled 'timbale' and was presented with delightful images, and a definition that indicates this stew should be in a pastry, or in a mold. So I made the stew, mashed some potatoes, and molded it in my small pie tin.

I was sure it was going to fail - the potatoes wouldn't contain the stew, or the plastic wrap would stick, or the stew would go way over the edges of the potatoes - which is why I started taking so many pictures, to show the possibility if not the result. But it turned out beautifully! Next time I'll put some horseradish in the potatoes (the bite would've been great with the sweetness of the stew.)

Also, a Timbale is a perfect single serving meal - making an individual mold for more than one person would be way too time consuming and annoying, but just for me, it was delightful.


Stew:
1 T butter
2 oz onion
4 sticks celery
1 bay leaf
1 oz walnuts
1 oz cashews
1 T flour
1 T tomato paste
1/4 lemon - juice and zest
Soy sauce and water as needed.

Heat the onion and celery in the butter, keep cooking, maybe add a bit of water if you need, until the celery is soft but not goop. Grind the nuts in a food processor, then add them with the flour, lemon zest, and tomato paste, and then slowly add water while stirring to create a thick stew. As you go taste seasoning and use soy sauce as you desire. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.

Mashed Potatoes:
6 oz boiled potatoes
1 T butter
salt and pepper
(next time add horseradish)
parsley

To assemble - mash your potatoes to your desired taste, line a small pie tin with plastic wrap and sprinkle with black pepper, mold the potatoes around to make a crust, throw the stew in the middle, invert, carefully remove plastic wrap, sprinkle with more parsley and dot with more butter.

Making a mashed potato crust

I was sure it would all fall apart.