Ingredients
1 celeriac
1 fennel bulb
3 blood oranges
1 large navel or cara cara orange
olive oil
almonds, a handful
almond oil (if you have it)
white wine vinegar
Prepare a big bowl with cold water. Drop in some lemon juice from a bottle or a fruit.
Peel the celeriac. Drop into the lemon bath immediately.
Trim the fennel (reserving the tops with fronds) and slice into thin boomerangs. Move them to the lemon bath. Take out the celeriac, cut it in half, put the other half back. Keep cutting the celeriac now, first into 1/4 inch discs, returning to the lemon bath each time, then into thin-to-medium matchsticks. Move the finished pieces right back to the lemon bath, then repeat with the other half.
Cut the oranges into 1/4 inch rounds. Trim off the peels with a paring knife. Cut little triangular pieces, removing center seeds and any remaining pith so you have clean and beautiful jewels of citrus.
Drain the lemon bath, add more lemon juice, a splash of white wine vinegar and almond (or olive) oil. Toss to dress.
Chop the handful of almonds roughly, just making sure some pieces are quite small.
Assemble each serving separately. Take the celeriac and fennel pieces, make a nice pile, add pieces of orange, sprinkle with some almonds and drizzle with some good olive oil. Crack on black pepper, toss on some finishing salt, then tear fennel fronds over the whole thing.
Recipe courtesy of Andrew Barton, photo credits Peter Schweitzer.
