Salt-baked celeriac soup with tempura and celeriac tartare

1 HOUR | SERVES 4 AS A STARTER | EASY | celeriacs 2 rapeseed oil 75ml vegetable oil for deep frying SALT DOUGH

plain flour 500g, plus extra for dusting table salt 250g

egg whites 135g (from approximately 4-5 eggs) TARTARE capers chopped to make 1 tbsp gherkins chopped to make 1 tbsp shallot finely chopped to make 1 tbsp TEMPURA

cornflour 2 tbsp

plain flour 4 tbsp bicarbonate of soda a pinch soda water 125ml

• Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. For the salt dough, put the flour, salt and egg whites into a large bowl. Gradually stir in 150ml of water, until a dough forms.

• On a lightly floured worksurface, roll Ω the salt dough out until 40cm x 40cm, put one celeriac in the centre and wrap the dough around until fully encased. Repeat with the remaining dough and celeriac. Put both onto a baking tray and bake for 1 hour 40 minutes or until very tender when pierced with a knife. Remove from the oven, leave to cool for 15 minutes, then break open the crust and discard. Using a knife, remove the skin from each celeriac.

• Cut four 2cm x 10cm batons from one celeriac and set these aside to cool completely for the tempura.

• Roughly dice the left-over celeriac along with 1/4 of the remaining whole celeriac. Put into a bowl with the chopped capers, gherkins and shallot.

• Put the remaining 3/4 celeriac into a blender or food processor with 600ml of water or enough to make a soup-like consistency, plus some seasoning. Pour in the rapeseed oil while the motor is running to make the soup glossy. Pour in a pan and keep warm.

• For the tempura batter, put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk in the soda water.

• Fill a pan no more than 1/3 full with vegetable oil and heat to 180C or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds.

• Put the celeriac batons into the batter and toss until fully coated, then lower gently into the oil. Fry for 2 minutes until crisp, then drain on kitchen paper.

• To serve, divide the tartare between

4 bowls, pour the soup around and rest the tempura on the side of the bowl so it stays crisp.

PER SERVING 378 KCALS | FAT 23G SATURATES 1.5G | CARBS 31.2G | SUGARS 4.2G FIBRE 12.2G | PROTEIN 5.3G | SALT 2.1G