Gluten-free · Soy-free · Nut-free

 

This recipe was inspired by “tacos al pastor”, a typical Mexican dish and one of the most known and loved street foods of Mexico City.

Usually, they’re made with pork that’s marinated in an adobo which is a sauce made from dried chilis and usually used to marinate meats and vegetables. It’s then cooked on a large spit around a fire, which cooks the meat slowly from the outside in and gives it a nice smoky charred crust.

When I saw celery root in the store, I thought “how could I make something similar to that?“ I know it keeps its firm texture when you cook it, so it’s perfect for slow cooking. And since I had a new circulator (!), I really wanted to try it out and make my own adobo to cook this celery root in. What I came up with is something similar to a cooked “meat” on a spit since incisions are made all over the celery root and then it’s covered in marinade, then cooked sous vide for 2.5 hours at 85ºC. Then the celery root is roasted in the oven to get the marinade to really stick to the outside and form a sort of “crust”. If you can, I really recommend taking a blowtorch to it after it comes out of the oven to get that smoky, charred flavor on the outside too.

what is Sous Vide?

So what is sous vide, exactly? It’s a cooking method in which the product is placed in a vacuum-sealed food-grade bag and cooked in a body of water that’s kept at a consistent temperature by a circulator (a handy machine that you can stick into the water and it heats it up to exactly the right temperature). This is a cooking method is used in many fine-dining restaurants because it allows you to control the cooking temperature without losing water or flavor, which usually happens when you cook food in water or heat it in the oven. All the flavor stays in the bag.

From my experience, cooking celery root in the oven causes it to lose a lot of water and it shrinks (unless you cook it at a very low temperature). So I decided to try sous vide. I wanted the marinade to really get inside the celery root and when you vacuum seal something in a marinade, all the air gets taken out so with the pressure in the bag, the marinade is the only thing that the product can absorb.

Heads up about the equipment you’re using: my vacuum-sealing machine isn’t that powerful since it’s a small one for home cooking, so marinade wasn’t able to puncture its way through to the center celery root. If you have a nice vacuum machine or even a commercial one, you’ll definitely get better results than me but if not, don’t worry. The result is still delicious!

What If I don’t have a circulator and/or vacuum seal bags?

You would need to roast the celery root at 340ºF for about 2-3 hours. This will vary, depending on the size of the celery root.

How to cook celery root sous vide

Since we want to cook the celery root whole, the first thing you’re going to want to do is find a bag big enough to put it in and then seal completely. If you have separate sous vide bags, use a large one. If, like me, you have a roll that you can cut to your desired size, measure how much you’d need to cover and seal your celery root.

Peel your celery root, being careful not to take any extra celery “meat” off. The next step is making the incisions. I wanted my celery root to get as much of the marinade as possible into it, so I made a lot of deep incisions all the way around (being careful not to slice all the way through—we want to keep the celery root whole) and about 1/4” apart. You also want to score the bottom and top parts too.

Marinate the celery root and place it in the vacuum bag. Add some more spoonfuls of marinade to the bag so that there’s plenty to go around yet not too much that it’ll come out when you vacuum seal it. Seal it, being careful to not have any marinade spill out as the air is pushed out.

Cook in a water bath at 85ºC for 2.5 hours or until you can insert a cake tester or toothpick in it without resistance.

Substitutions

• Instead of Pasilla chili, you can use Ancho chili.

• Instead of pear, you can always use pear purée or even apple sauce (just add this to the blender when blending everything).

• If you can’t find telicherry peppercorns, you can use regular black pepper.

equipment

For these celery root tacos al pastor, you’ll need:

• circulator

• 12qt container or pot for water bath

• vacuum-sealing machine

• food grade vacuum-sealing bags

• 1 medium skillet

• high-speed blender

• 1 medium pot

• 1 large bowl

• baking tray + parchment paper

• brush or large spoon

• chef’s knife

• blowtorch (optional)

USES

You can use this celery root for tacos, like I do here, or cut into thin strips (almost like pulled pork) and use for sandwiches, salads, or even fillings. Dice and use in soups, or cut and sear to serve as mini celery root “steaks.”

Use the marinade to season beans, lentils, as a cooking sauce for any vegetables, to marinate tofu, other vegetable proteins, and even mushrooms.

 

 

watch the recipe video here:

serves: 4

Ingredients

pear pasilla marinade (yields 453g)

16g Pasilla chilis (about 2 chilis)

56g white onion (about 1/4 of an onion)

20g garlic (about 3 cloves), skin on

184g d’Anjou pear (1 medium)

450ml water 

1g telicherry peppercorns, toasted

1g coriander seeds, toasted

44ml olive oil

8g sea salt, plus more to taste

celery root

600g celery root (1 large piece)

Tacos (serves 4)

8 corn tortillas

40ml olive oil

1/4 white onion, thinly sliced

2 d’Anjou pears, sliced

cilantro leaves

avocado cream (optional)

lime juice, to taste

Method

pear pasilla marinade

1. Toast the Pasilla chilis in a pan on medium flame for a few seconds, pressing the chilies down gently so that they toast evenly. The chilis will be toasted once they’re fragrant and some blisters start to appear on the skin. Flip and toast the other side, being careful not to burn them in otherwise they’ll become too bitter. Remove from heat and use your hands or some scissors to remove the stems.

2. In the same pan, add the unpeeled garlic cloves, onion, and the pear on medium flame for 4 minutes or until everything starts to get nice and golden. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Heat a medium pot with 450ml of water and place toasted chilis, garlic, onion, and toasted spices. Cook for 20 minutes on low flame, or until the chilis have completely softened. You should be able to make a purée by squeezing them between your fingers.

4. Strain and reserve the water. Place 200ml of it in a high-speed blender, as well as the chilis, garlic, onion, spices, pear, olive oil, and salt. Blend on high until completely smooth (about 3 minutes). Pass through a sieve to make sure there are no large pieces of chilis and set aside.

celery root

1. Set up your circulator to 85ºC in a large 12qt container of water.

2. Peel the celery root with a sharp knife, trying to waste as little as possible. Cut the bottom and top off so that it can stand upright on a base. Make horizontal incisions all around the celery root by laying it on its side and inserting your knife halfway through (don’t go all the way through). Make these incisions all the way down that side of the celery root, about 1/4” apart. Flip the celery root over and repeat on the other side, making sure not to slice the knife all the way through. The goal is to make deep incisions all around it so that the marinate can get all the way to the center of the celery root, but keep the celery root whole. Finally, make some quick incisions on the top and bottom by running the tip of the knife along it in a checkered pattern.

3. Place the celery root in a large bowl and sprinkle a bit of sea salt over it to season. Generously spoon over the marinade spread it all over the celery root (if you have gloves, use them here!). Make sure it’s completely covered, then transfer to the vacuum seal bag. Add a couple more spoonfuls of marinade into the bag, then vacuum seal.

4. Place the sealed bag into the circulator water and cook for 2.5 hours at 85ºC.

5. Preheat your oven to 450ºF. Once cooked, take the celery root out of the bath and out of the bag, and place upright on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Use a spoon or brush to coat the celery root with the remaining marinade from inside the bag. Roast for 20 minutes, brushing the celery root with some marinade at the halfway point at 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. For an extra char, use a blowtorch to char the outside of the celery root.

Tacos

1. To assemble your tacos, shave off the celery root into thin pieces, so they look almost like pulled meat.

2. Heat the tortillas one a time in a skillet with a few drops of olive oil. Remove from pan and brush some of the marinade all over the tortillas. Fill with celery root, sliced onion, pear, cilantro, avocado cream (if using), and season with lime juice. Serve 2 tacos per person.