Celery Root and Stilton Soup

This was a recipe I read in 'Cooking with Shelburne Farms' by Melissa Pasanen and Rick Gencarelli, and wanted to try after picking up a celery root (celeriac) at the Burlington Farmers' Market. The recipe is actually credited to Vermont chef Aaron Josinsky.

Take 1 celery root. Mine was 9 oz, so if yours is larger or smaller you may have to adjust quantities up or down. Remove the skin (I find a small paring knife best for this) and cut into 1-inch cubes. Put them in a saucepan with 2 cups of milk and a good pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer and maintain until the cubes are soft, about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, and stir occasionally. Once done, blend with a blender (be very careful with hot liquids - do it in small batches) or immersion blender. Add 1-2 cups chicken stock (depending on how thick you like your soup - if you like it thicker, use less stock) and 1.5 oz crumbled blue cheese (I used Stilton, which I like, but just about any blue cheese works). Blend again, and reheat gently. Strain through your finest sieve (unless you like your soup thick). Serve and enjoy!

I garnished my soup with oven-roasted pears (I took a pear, de-cored it, sliced it, tossed it with olive oil and salt and roasted for about 30 minutes at 350F). The original recipe suggested finishing it with a little lemon juice and garnishing with roasted apples and blue cheese crumbles.

Note 1 - I left my milk unattended and it curdled. After washing the curds off the celery root and straining the whey through a very fine strainer, I continued with the recipe and strained again at the end. The soup wound up a little grainy, but not a bad save!

Note 2 - Metric info: 9 oz = 255g; 1 inch = 2.5cm; 2 cups = 240ml; 1.5 oz = 43g; 350F = 175C