Celery Root

Know this

Buy it small. A celery root the size of a softball is dense all the way through; the big show-off ones go pithy and hollow in the middle. It should be heavy, hard, and have as few roots and as little dirt as you can find, because every one of those crevices is weight you pay for and then throw away. Peel it with a knife, not a peeler, taking the whole knobbly skin off in slabs. Chef secret: it browns in minutes once cut, so have a bowl of lemon water ready before the knife comes out, and go half celery root and half potato in the mash. Nobody can name what changed, and nobody goes back to plain potato.

Cook

Shaved raw into a mustard-and-mayonnaise rémoulade, the French deli salad that makes winter bearable, or cut into chunks and roasted in brown butter until the edges go dark. Puréed with cream under a piece of fish it does what potato wishes it could do.

Season

Fall through winter. It stores for months in the fridge, so one bought in November is still good in February.

Best pairings

Apple · Mustard · Hazelnut · Brown butter · Parsley · Lemon

Also worth trying: cream, truffle, walnut, horseradish, bacon, Parmesan.

Recommended wine