Celery, The Nation's Most Underestimated Side Dish!

Now that was worth saying twice Mellow! Pigs DO make good pets and are even smarter than dogs. And... if you fed Petunia plenty of Celery I am sure the air WAS fresh. :~)
 
Foodb, sounds like, along woth lotsa other stuff, things are going backwards! The old way of using Celery on the table sounds much smarter!
Joe

Oh... 6 pages about Celery? Whoda thunk? Thanks for all the great input all! I have learned much about the importance of this underestamated veggie.
Joe

All this celery talk forced me to make celery stuffed with ham salad for one of yesterday's football snacks.
 

 
 

Ruby, that Ham Salad looks great! But... you know we are gonna want the recipe. And the Celery, Ham salad combo has made me REAL hungry for some of that!
Joe

The ham salad is from the Stoltzfus Amish Deli at the Allentown PA Fairgrounds farmers' market. 

Looks real good, RubyRose.  I wonder why ham salad is hard to find in restaurants and delis these days.  At least that's my experience.

Ruby, and guesses as to whats in that yummy looking Ham Salad? The Amish folks always make great foods! You are lucky to be so near.
 
Mellow, I bet Petunia loved Celery! Chicken, Tuna, and ham salad are all kinda hard to find, except at some buffet salad bars sometimes. I have found some surprisingly good meat type salads at buffets. I always start at the salad bar. Salads served as a stuffing for Celery is even harder to find.
Joe
 
 

PapaJoe8

Ruby, and guesses as to whats in that yummy looking Ham Salad? The Amish folks always make great foods! You are lucky to be so near. 

 
It's ground ham, sweet pickle relish, mayo and a little bit of mustard.
 
One restaurant that gives ham salad a role on the menu is the Country Cupboard in Lewisburg PA.  Although I don't recommend their buffet, you can get very good ham salad in sandwiches or as a salad platter. 
 
Tea rooms often feature ham salad in their tea sandwiches but I'm guessing you don't visit them too often.

Ruby, I may start dropping in on those Tea Rooms. I never thought about the other stuff they might serve. And, tea w/ honey, and maybe I could sneak in a splash of Bourbon?... is one of my favorite things. :~)))
Joe

Anyone doing stuffed Celery for Thanksgiving? I am making some w/ Jalapeno Pimento Cheese. The name brand store bought stuff is not bad. Or you can make your own. Be sure to use pickled jalapenos if you do. Although... I have never had it made w/ fresh jalapenos. What kind of Stuffed Celery will you be serving?
 
And... any restaurants offering Stuffed Celery for the holidays. Or any kind of Celery?
Joe

I made a homemade pimento cheese yesterday, and I stuffed celery with it for appetizers. Thanksgiving day will be celery stuffed with a blue cheese/cream cheese garlic powder concoction I make.

MellowRoast


Looks real good, RubyRose.  I wonder why ham salad is hard to find in restaurants and delis these days.  At least that's my experience.

Around here, the better grocery stores' deli departments all offer ham salad (but be sure you don't get "sandwich spread" by mistake, which looks similar and is cheaper, but is made from ground-up lunch meat scraps and ends instead of real ham). 
 
I am very familiar with this, since the deli in the store where I worked made and offered both products.  All of the end pieces and sliced "mistakes" from the bologna, salami, pickle-pimento loaf, etc. chubs were saved refrigerated to be later ground up for the sandwich spread, so the sandwich spread would vary in flavor from day to day depending on what all was in it.
 
 

annpeeples


I made a homemade pimento cheese yesterday, and I stuffed celery with it for appetizers. Thanksgiving day will be celery stuffed with a blue cheese/cream cheese garlic powder concoction I make.

Always nice to hear the phrase homemade pimento cheese!  Music to my ears. 
 
 

6star

Around here, the better grocery stores' deli departments all offer ham salad (but be sure you don't get "sandwich spread" by mistake, which looks similar and is cheaper, but is made from ground-up lunch meat scraps and ends instead of real ham). 

I am very familiar with this, since the deli in the store where I worked made and offered both products.  All of the end pieces and sliced "mistakes" from the bologna, salami, pickle-pimento loaf, etc. chubs were saved refrigerated to be later ground up for the sandwich spread, so the sandwich spread would vary in flavor from day to day depending on what all was in it.

That's very interesting, thanks for the tip!  I really love ham salad.  Even Honeybaked Ham here stopped serving it.  Go figure. 

I'm serving celery strips for Thanksgiving, but rarely serve them intact where they can be stuffed.  Easier to eat and seem crisper that way, but maybe it's just me. 

Mellow, sounds good but how do you make those strips? I am just here w/ a bunch a stalks.
 
And, how do you peal off tha strings?
Joe

Wow, I sure hope I can describe this, Shanghai Joe - D'oh! - I mean, PapaJoe8.  Someone here recently posted a picture of a salad with made with celery strips, olives, and salami.  The celery strips in that salad resemble mine.  
 
Basically, I first make celery sticks, and then cut lengthwise down each celery stick several times, creating strips.  The number of lengthwise cuts you make determines the width of each strip.  You can make them as wide or as thin as you like.  I really prefer these over celery sticks, but that's just me. 
 
To de-string the celery sticks (before making strips), I use a paring knife (or other small knife) to cut in a downward motion just inside of the strings at the top of the celery stick, going around the "U" shape of the stick, creating a series of tabs.  Then I take the tabs of string and just strip them off by hand in a downward motion.  Hey, does this make sense?  I've never explained this before.  It's easier to demonstrate, I gar-on-tee.
 
Before serving, and if I have the extra time, I refrigerate them another couple of hours, and they turn out super-crispy.
 
By the way, for the purposes of celery strips, if the celery is super-fresh and cold to start with, you may not need to remove the strings.  Just experiment with a couple.  The older the celery is, the more ornery the strings.  Kinda like people!

You probably saw the recent news story about red celery going on the market.  I sent an email to the producer saying he totally wasted all his R&D money because we don't want red celery -- we want STRINGLESS celery. 

Thanks for the "strips" recipe Mellow!
 
But how bout Red Stringless Celery???
 
I just finished munchin on some Jalapeno Pimento Cheese Stuffed Celery... yummmyyy!
Joe
 
Oh, it was just regular green Celery with strings removed.

I hope it wasn't Price's!

Mellow, nope... it was Food Club and I just added tha pickled jalapenos w/ their juice. :~)
Joe

PapaJoe8


Mellow, nope... it was Food Club and I just added tha pickled jalapenos w/ their juice. :~)
Joe

my gma just had dinner on a amish farm she said the best sidedish was sweet &sour stewed celery.

Bdtn, wow... that sweet n sour stewed celery sounds great! Now to find a recipe.
Joe

PapaJoe8


Bdtn, wow... that sweet n sour stewed celery sounds great! Now to find a recipe.
Joe

 
SWEET AND SOUR CELERY - serves 4
2 cups celery, cut in 1-inch pieces
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. cider vinegar
3 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs. butter
 
Cook celery in water with salt for 30 minutes.  Drain, then add remaining ingredients.  Serve hot.  To serve cold, omit butter.
 
From The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking by Edna Eby Heller

Ruby, thanks! Simple but sounds great. I bet that book has many good recipes. Hmm, hot or cold? I might need to try both.
Joe