Monday, August 13, 2007

Celery thokku

The first I ever heard of celery was when I was giggling my way through Ogden Nash's brilliantly funny, cleverly worded and quite captivating collection of poetry (Candy is Dandy, but Liquor is Quicker). Four lines was all it was, and the poem (like a lot of his other poems) unhesitatingly took up residence in my head. Here it is, in its brief but perfectly descriptive glory:

"Celery, raw
Develops the jaw.
But celery, stewed,
Is more quietly chewed."

Brilliant, or what? (For those who would like to know more about Nash's poetry,
click here.)

When I came across the actual vegetable (can't remember exactly when, perhaps it was in Singapore), I discovered that much as I liked the poem, celery wasnt quite to my taste - raw OR stewed. Crunchy, yes. Practically zero calories, yes. Perfect for dieters, yes. But tasty? No. Not to my tastebuds, not really. Its very strong flavour overpowers everything else in the vicinity, if you ask me. If you use it in soup, all you taste is celery (which is okay if it's celery soup you're making, but not otherwise). Even celery SEED (which is in Pete's all-time favourite 21-herb seasoning from Trader Joe's) is strong enough to muscle in on the other 20 herbs in the mix.

So I pretty much gave up on it. Until a couple of days back, when my mother informed me that she had made celery thokku from a recipe that she came across in
Hema's blog, Vegetarian Concoctions. (I'd sent amma a link to the yelai vadam recipe I'd seen there, and she went on to browse other recipes.)

Celery thokku? Wow. Talk about innovation, not to mention imagination. Mine would definitely have boggled if anybody had asked me to make something Indian with this vegetable. I did cross-question amma about the edibility of such a thokku, and she gave it the thumbs-up. I was still a bit hesitant to believe her, though. I don't mean to imply that my mother was telling porkies, but the problem is she's an indiscriminate lover of all vegetables, including those I really dislike! So I tend to take her recommendations with a slight pinch of salt.

As it happened, Pete and I went to the Shrewsbury market on Saturday, and there were large bunches of celery marked down to 50p for 5 stalks. This seemed too good to pass up, so I bought a bunch, totally intending to make celery thokku.

Man, those stalks needed some washing to get rid of the bits of remaining soil (they were pre-washed, but still). Then I stringed the ribs (strung them? de-stringed them? de-strung them? whatever) - I'm not sure you need to do that with celery, but I did it anyway. (When I snapped one in half, little bristly bits stuck out from the broken ends. So I grabbed the bits and pulled them, one at a time. And that is how you de-string celery. Thought I'd record it for posterity, just in case.)

I had quite a pile of stringy bits when I was finished, and it seemed like a good idea not to have them in the thokku.

For the recipe, I pretty much followed Hema's instructions, except that I added a couple of cloves of garlic (the last bits of a bulb languishing in my cupboard) - garlic's always good, right? Right.

So here's my verdict: Wow, the celery thokku was surprisingly good! Only gently tasting of celery, great mixed with rice, and perfect as a dip. I spread some on the scones that I made, and it tasted great! I must say that my thokku stayed stubbornly green, unlike Hema's which took on a nice dark colour. Mine was also runny compared to hers... perhaps I should have let it cook down even more. In any case, it was dee-lish! The world (me included) owes a debt of gratitude to Hema and her mother-in-law for this really innovative recipe. :)

So - thank you, ladies! :)

Recipe for:
Celery thokku




Ingredients:



5 stalks celery, stringed and chopped
5-7 green chillies (or to taste), chopped
1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing) powder
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
1" piece ginger, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1/4 cup gingelly oil (preferably)

Method:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wide pan. Add the chopped celery and saute it with the coriander leaves for 7 minutes.



Take off the heat and let it cool.



2. Add another tbsp oil in the pan and add the methi (fenugreek) seeds, chopped chillies, ginger and garlic. Cook this for 2-3 minutes, stirring.



3. Grind the cooled celery along with the ginger and garlic mixture, making a smooth paste.



4. Pour the rest of the oil in the pan now, and add the mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the celery paste.



5. Add salt to taste, turmeric powder and asafoetida powder and mix well. Cook the thokku on a low simmer till the oil leaves the sides of the pan and the mixture cooks down to a thick consistency.

6. Mix the thokku with plain cooked rice, spread it over toast, roll it up in chapaties, use it as a dip.

10 comments:

Sharmi said...

celery thokku sounds so new and refreshing. very nice green.

Shammi said...

Thanks, Sharmi. :) The idea behind this thokku is of course Hema!

sra said...

Ok, I'm sold - the pix did it! I've seen lettuce poriyal too, as unusual as it comes! Not bad-tasting but yours looks way tasty!

Anonymous said...

Hi Shyamala! glad you made it and liked it. Guess what? Just made some last week.
BTW my chithi (mom's sis) happens to be a big fan of Food, in the main:) She will be glad to know something from my space was featured here!

indosungod said...

Let me declare first I am a celery hater too. If all I can find is soup and it has celery I won't touch it or I'd pick each celery bit out of it before eating it.


So coming from there this chutney looks delicious to say the least almost like coconut chutney. Well I am going to reluctanty try it though and thanks to Hema too.

Castor aka Kiwilax said...

Avocado tuvaiyal (or togel) anyone??

Suganya said...

I was gonna ask for this recipe when you had mentioned this with herb scones. I am not a big fan of celery either. But if i can consume this vege (not even zero, but negative calories) that would be great.

Anonymous said...

I love all vegies, but admit to being kind of "ehhhhhhh" on celery for the reasons you mentioned. I find I really like it only one way - celery sticks with peanut butter spread into the little trough. Salty and sweet and crunchy.

I don't think you need to destring them - that sounds like a pain. But I'm sure it made for a better thokku. Sounds interesting.

Chhaya said...

Hi Shyamala,
I tried this recipe yesterday and it was a hit ! I was amazed at the taste :) thanks for posting the recipe...the only change I made was to chop half an onion, saute it till it turned brown and added that to the thokku...only because I added a tad too much salt and wanted to correct it ;) ...but it was delicious ! Will definitely be making it again .

Anonymous said...

HI,
I tried this chutney yesterday, it came out very good...i did it in easy way...i fried celery and green chillis, tamarind and mint leaves(i did not have cilantro)in medium flame with out lid. after it cooled grinded in food processor with cumin and garlic. it was excellent....thanks for the recipe and idea of using celery.