Baked Eggs & Celeriac

Happy December!  How many mince pies have you eaten so far?  My tally stands at a very modest one.  I will addressing this in the coming days.

Since the weather has turned so cold that I feel like a chilly penguin from Frozen Planet, my food focus recently has been on hearty, filling dishes that can warm up the long dark evenings.   Baked eggs and celeriac is a recipe that comes from this book - and it's fantastic, for the following reasons:

1.) It uses celeriac.  Thank goodness!  Else what on earth would we do with this weird knobbly vegetable that's such a feature of the winter veg box?

2.)  It uses lots of butter.  Big plus point.

3.)  As the book describes, it's a hearty winter dish that isn't brown and sludgy.

Method (serves 2)

Peel the celeriac and chop into smallish pieces.  Boil until tender, drain and mash with tons of butter, salt and pepper. 

Put the celeriac mash in a baking dish and spread out evenly.  Make four indents in the celeriac, and crack an egg into each.  Sprinkle with a little more pepper, and dot a piece of butter onto each yolk. 

Bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the eggs are set and the celeriac is turning slightly golden.

Serve with plenty of hot buttered toast and you have the recipe for a delicious winter's feast.