Buffalo Celery

By meganvt01 • March 10, 2012 • 4 Comments

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Author Notes: As soon as I saw this contest - I couldn't stop thinking about poor old celery sitting on the side of a plate with buffalo wings. It just kept coming back to me; probably because the flavors work so well together. I though - why not treat the celery as the start of the buffalo show? Like a fritto misto (which I love) and I thought this solves the age old dilemma of having vegetarians left out of wing night! Amazing - this is delicious and my playful attempt at remaking a classic The key to this is having nice thick pieces of celery - no hearts here or they'll get overcooked - and you MUST be careful to remove all of the stringy pieces from your pieces of celery. Serve this dish immediately - no one likes soggy fried veggies! For the sauce - I amped up the celery flavor with leaves, seeds, and celery salt. - meganvt01

Makes 1 tray of buffalo celery

Blue cheese dip

1/3 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 tablespoon softened cream cheese
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon scallions, minced
1 tablespoon celery leaves, minced
1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon celery salt

Combine all the ingredients - season with salt and pepper.

Buffalo celery

12 thick stalks celery, cut into 2 inch long pieces and very carefully trimmed of stringy pieces
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cayanne
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon tabasco (or another hot sauce)
Your favorite buffalo wing sauce - I like Texas Pete
peanut oil, for frying

Combine the flour, cayenne, and salt in one shallow bowl.
Combine the eggs and tabasco in another shallow bowl.
Heat your oil in a deep pot over medium high heat - use a thermometer to maintain a temperature of 360 (a bit hot but we want these crisp on the outside without losing crunch on the inside).
Dip the celery pieces in the egg wash, then dredge in flour.
Fry until golden brown - about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt immediately after cooking.
Serve with your favorite wing sauce on the side (or drizzled over top) and the blue cheese dip.