Celeriac baked in barley

Irish chef Mark Moriarty, winner of the first edition of the San Pellegrino Young Chef 2015 award, when presenting his signature dish said: «It consists of a whole piece of blowtorch-charred celeriac marinated in an Irish style miso of cooked pearl barley and hay. It’s accompanied by hazelnuts and some other forms of celeriac. The strength is its punch on the palate, and its representation of traditional Irish food culture in a modern form».

Celeriac baked in barley and fermented hay, cured and smoked celeriac, hazelnut, celeriac and toasted hay tea

Recipe for 4 people

INGREDIENTS
For the Leek Ash
3 large leeks, tops removed and halved

For the Barley Crust
350 g Barley Flour
130 g Salt
80 g t45 flour
150 g egg white

For the Fermented Hay
50 g dried hay
2 g fresh yeast
100 ml warm water

For the Baked Celeriac
1 celeriac, turned and scrubbed into 4 pieces
10 g leek ash
100 g rye crust
50 g fermented hay

For the Pickled celeriac sheet
1 whole celeriac, peeled
50 g water
50 g white wine vinegar
50 g sugar
20 g chopped celeriac

For the Hazelnut Emulsion
10 g Dijon mustard
10 g white wine vinegar
30 g pasteurized egg yolk
500 ml Hazelnut oil

For the Cured and Smoked Celeriac
10 g rock salt
10 g toasted hay
10 g celery leaves
50 g dried hay
50 g turned celeriac

For the Celeriac Tea
400 ml raw celeriac
30 g toasted hay

METHOD
For the Leek ash
Separate each layer of the leeks and place on a baking tray under a salamander at a high heat until the leeks become completely blackened, remove and blitz to a fine ash in the salamander.

For the Barley crust
Place all the dry ingredients in a kenwood mixer and mix to a dry but pliable consistency, roll out approx. 3mm thick.

For the Fermented Hay
Place the hay in an oven tray and toast in a hot oven for 4mins. Remove and place in a bucket while still warm. Mix the warm water and fresh yeast and add to the hay in the bucket. Mix and cover in cling film. Store in a warm place to ferment for 8-10 days.

For the Baked Celeriac
Coat the turned celeriacs in the leek ash.
Roll out the barley crust and cover it with the fermented hay.
Place the celeriacs on top of the hay and begin to wrap the crust around it until a perfectly smooth parcels are achieved. Bake the parcels at 200 degrees for 40mins, remove and open tableside.

For the Pickled Celeriac Sheet
Using a Japanese mandolin, turn the celeriac into sheets, trim the edges and place in a vacuum bag. Heat the water, vinegar, chopped celeriac and sugar until dissolved and place a small amount in the vacuum bags. Compress the sheets and set aside for service.

For the Hazelnut Emulsion
Place the mustard, vinegar and egg yolk in a thermomix and blitz at speed 4. Emulsify with the hazelnut oil and place in a sqeeze bottle.

For the Cured and Smoked Celeriac
Place the celeriac in a box with the dried hay and light the hay on fire in order to smoke it, repeat this process 5 times. Next place the smoked celeriac in a vacuum bag with the celery leaves, salt and toasted hay and seal. Allow to cure for 24 hours. Next place the cured and smoked celeriac in a dehydrator for 7 days until in becomes rock hard. Grate tableside during service.

For the Celeriac Tea
Place the raw celeriac juice in a pot and bring slowly to the boil, skimming regularly, when it reaches the boil, remove the pot from the heat, and pass the liquid through muslin cloth. Place 20g of the toasted hay into the tea and infuse for 30seconds before passing through muslin cloth again. Pour the tea into a cast iron kettle and stuff the lid with 10g of hay, light this on fire before placing the lid on in order to lightly smoke the hay and serve tableside.

PRESENTATION
Remove the baked celeriac from the crust and keep warm under a heater light. Squeeze 3 blobs of hazelnut emulsion onto a ceramic white plate approx. 5inches apart in a triangular shape. Dress each blob with a small celery leaf, standing tall and half a toasted hazelnut. Now place the baked celeriac in the centre and fold the pickled celeriac sheet over it. Using a dropper, place a few drops of hazelnut oil arounf the plate. Seperately, pour the tea into a cast iron kettle and stuff the lid with 10g of hay, light this on fire before placing the lid on in order to lightly smoke the hay and serve tableside into a small saki cup. Finally, grate the smoked and cured celeriac over the centre of the plate and serve.