a dinner of Trout and Celeriac...plus Thanksgiving plans!

Today I bought some fresh, whole trout (Georg's favorite) and some celeriac to make for dinner. The trout turned out OK...I used this Food Network recipe because I really only like fish skin when it is super crispy. However, I really needed a nonstick skillet because the skin of the fish ended up sticking to the bottom of the pan and became burned instead of crispy. If the skin wouldn't have stuck it probably would have been an excellent interpretation of that recipe, but even though the skin did stick the trout was still pretty good. As an aside, I hate cooking whole fish. It makes me sad. Even though I am a devout carnivore, I felt so evil cutting the tail off the fish so it would fit in the skillet. The fishies still had their eyes! They could see me maiming them! I was filled with guilt and disgust. But it's ok, I am over it by now.

Celeriac has been called "the vegetable world's ugly duckling" and it is pretty ugly. It's interesting, though, because it tastes good both raw and cooked, kind of like fennel. Raw it's crunchy and has strong celery flavor (it is a celery root, after all). Cooked, the celery flavor lingers, but it is more mellow, and the texture of the vegetable is smooth. Having never prepared celeriac before, I consulted an NPR article about it (linked above) and decided to go with the boiled celeriac with herb butter. I chose lemon verbena from Georg's mother's garden to include in the dish, which may have been a bad choice because I think it overpowered the delicate celery flavor of this vegetable. It tasted really lemony, probably because as well as using this herb I boiled the celeriac in a combination of lemon juice and water. Surprisingly, even with the strong flavors of the lemon and herbs, I found it to be a little boring. There isn't much in the way of texture, and the strong celery flavor I remembered when I sampled it raw seemed to boil away.

I did think of one good use for it, though: diced in my Thanksgiving stuffing. My cornbread stuffing recipe calls for three stalks of celery, but all the cellulose in celery wreaks havoc on Georg's stomach. Instead, I will use the celeriac to bring out a subtle celery flavor without the bad side effects. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I have big plans. I will be making a roasted turkey with sage butter (mmm...sage butter); a pumpkin stuffed with cornbread dressing (with chestnuts and celeriac!!); hashed brussels sprouts with lemon zest and mustard seeds; roasted sweet potatoes and fennel with parmesan and lime; and a cranberry, caramel, and almond tart. I have heard this tart is delicious, and it looks beautiful in pictures, so if you want to try it, you can find the recipe here. No one in Austria celebrates Thanksgiving (except, well, Americans in Austria), so I intend to demonstrate for my boyfriend's family the joys of Thanksgiving dinner. I may even make them go around the table saying what they're thankful for before they can eat, like we do in my family.

I hope everything goes as planned! I will, of course, post pictures of the dinner on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving to all!