speaking of which, wtf is a rutabaga & what do you do with a celery root?
"Rutabaga", also known as "Swede" or "Swedish Turnip" is a spherical root vegetable that is cross between cabbage and turnip.
The flavour carries the bitterness of cabbage but also a little sweetness. Most often boiled, mashed and served with different dishes of salted pork or ham.
In Finland, there is a dish where mashed swede is mixed with syrup, cream and crumbs and and egg, flavoured with ginger (and sometimes nutmeg and/or allspice) and baked to make a gratin, not unsimilar to a sweet potato pie without the crust, but again: most often served together with pork and not as a dessert.
(It is
not typically called "rutabaga" in Swedish, only "rotabagge" in a specific dialect)
Celery root is the root of celery. It is also spherical, looking similar to swede. It is sometimes easiest to tell them apart by smell as celery root has the tanginess of celery (obviously).
Also needs to be boiled to eat but is tougher and stringier. Celery root is most often used for soups, I think, and often a major part of vegetable stock.
Last night I diced some finely and used in a Bolognese to give it more flavour.
You might find a recipe for a dish where a slice of celery root is simmered in stock or baked for a long time, but I think that is much overrated.
