Celery Soup

Ingredients

• 9 celery heads
• 1 tsp salt
• to taste nutmeg
• 1 lump sugar
• 300 ml stock
• 600 ml cream
• 2 litres boiling water

Method

Blanch the celery first. Cut nine heads into 2cm pieces — this size matters because smaller pieces disintegrate into mush during the long cook, larger ones refuse to soften evenly. Drop them into the boiling salted water for three minutes, then drain and refresh in cold water. This simmering step removes the raw, sometimes soapy edge that celery carries, especially the inner cores. The salt in the blanch water seasons the vegetable tissue itself, not just the cooking liquid.

Return the blanched celery to 2 litres of fresh boiling water with 1 tsp salt, a pinch of nutmeg (start small — it dominates quickly), and a lump of sugar to balance the celery's faint bitterness. Simmer gently for 40 minutes until the celery collapses under a spoon. You want complete breakdown here; the cells have surrendered entirely. Pass the lot through a sieve, pressing the softened celery against the mesh to extract every gram of flavour and starch — this starch is your thickener, not the cream. Discard the fibrous solids.

Return the purée to the pot. Add 300ml stock (chicken or vegetable; celery demands something savoury to anchor it) and 600ml cream. The stock brings salt and depth; the cream rounds the sharpness without muting it. Heat through gently — never boil dairy into a soup after it's added, or the casein proteins will separate and the texture fractures. Once steam rises from the surface and the first bubbles appear at the edge, it's done. Taste and adjust salt and nutmeg. The soup should smell green and clean, not medicinal.

Serve immediately in warmed bowls. Celery soup is best eaten hot and fresh; it separates and loses vibrancy if held too long. A grind of white pepper and a small dice of blanched celery leaf as garnish restore some of the vegetable's structure that cooking obliterates.