Puréed Celery Soup

The Ingredients (for 16 servings):

• 6 garlic cloves, weighing approximately 28 g (or 1 oz)
• 4 shallots, weighing approximately 230 g (or 8 oz)
• 3.8 l (or 4 quarts) of soup stock (mine was home-made chicken stock)
• 1 medium celery root (properly, a calyx), weighing approximately 400 g (or 14 oz)
• 340 g (or 12 oz) of celery stalks
• 1 small cauliflower, weighing approximately 560 g (or 1¼ lb)
• 2 medium carrots, weighing approximately 120 g (or 4 oz)
• 230 g (or 8 oz) of roasted cashews
• 5 g (or 2 teaspoons) of freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small bunch of parsley, preferably flat-leaf, or Italian
• salt
• cooking grade olive oil

The Method:

1. Peel the garlic cloves and put them through a press or finely dice or grind them with a mortar and pestle.
2. Peel the shallots and slice them finely.
   
3. Place a small skillet on the stove, add enough olive oil to cover the bottom, and warm it over medium heat.
4. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and shallots and sauté them for about 5 minutes, until the shallots are limp and just starting to smell or look toasty. Turn off the heat and allow the aromatics to rest in the skillet.
5. Meanwhile, begin to heat the stock in a pressure cooker (or stockpot).
6. Trim the celery root and cut it into cubes approximately 2 cm (or ¾ in) in size.
   
7. Wash the celery stalks and cut them into chunks approximately 2 cm (or ¾ in) long.
8. Cut the cauliflower into florets, discarding the stem.
9. Peel the carrots and cut them into chunks approximately 2 cm (or ¾ in) long.
10. Add the shallots and garlic, the celery root, celery, cauliflower, carrot, cashews, and black pepper to the heated stock.
    
11. Place the lid on the pressure cooker and allow the soup to cook under 100 kPa (or 15 psi) of pressure for 15 minutes or under a lower pressure for a proportionately longer time.
    
    (Or bring the stock to a boil in the stockpot, and allow it to simmer for at least one hour.)
12. Allow the soup mixture to cool and adjust for saltiness.
13. Purée the soup in a blender or food processor, or by using an immersible hand mixer.
14. Finely chop the parsley and sprinkle it on top of each serving.

The Story:

The whistling of the pressure cooker and the bobbling weight on the top of the lid is an early memory of mine. My parents always had a pressure cooker and, although they really only used it to steam vegetables, they seemed to find it indispensable. Even in their sixties I remember sending them, at their request, a pressure cooker through the mail because they could not get one in the town they were living in, in rural Brazil.

I myself had never used a pressure cooker until now. I bought one large enough to accommodate a pig's head (so our son-in-law can make Caribbean-style souse) or a couple of racks of baby back ribs, then found there was so much more I could do with it.

Soups and soup stocks are much simpler and quicker this way than the traditional methods, and the taste is almost as rich and complex. The celery soup was inspired by half a bunch of celery in the refrigerator, not being used for anything, and I made the stock in about 45 minutes from chicken necks, gizzards, etc. that I freeze in a plastic bag for just that purpose. After removing the solids from the broth, I just added the soup ingredients and, in another 45 minutes we had soup.