Recipe Celery Polynesian

TastyReuben

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Celery Polynesian
Makes 5 servings

Ingredients
10 medium stalks celery, sliced diagonally into 1/4-inch pieces
8 oz can/tin sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 TB instant chicken bouillon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 oz diced pimentos, drained

Directions
Cook and stir celery, water chestnuts, instant bouillon (dry), salt, and celery salt in oil over medium heat, turning vegetables constantly with a spatula, until celery is crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in pimentos and heat through.

NOTE: I completely omitted the 1/2 tsp salt, figuring the bouillon and celery salt would be salt aplenty; it was still extremely salty. My recommendation would be to cut back on the bouillon a bit, omit the salt, and substitute ground celery seed for the celery salt, maybe 1/4 tsp of that.

Also, the picture below shows 4 oz of SPAM added, because I wanted a main dish instead of a side dish. Just included it at the beginning and cook alongside the celery, et al.

Recipe from Betty Crocker's Complete Cookbook


The CookingBites recipe challenge: celery, celeriac, celery salt & celery seeds
 
I like the nostalgia value, but more because of the picture you painted (in black-and-white) in the Challenge thread. So, the original intent of the dish was chopped celery with water chestnuts and pimentos? I wonder if they have any of those ingredients in Polynesia. And, for that matter, I have to believe no one at Betty Crocker at the time had ever been to Polynesia when they decided on this recipe. They probably had a brainstorming meeting that went something like this:

"We wanted to create a Polynesian recipe for the housewives to whip up for their husbands".
"Oooh....sounds exotic! But, we need to make sure that they can make it from readily-available ingredients."
"Of course, of course."
"So, what sort of food do they have in Polynesia?"
After a lengthy, awkward silence, someone suggests. "Um...how about celery? Everyone has celery."
Then, after everyone nods their heads, they decide to randomly pick ingredients out of a hat to round out the recipe.

This would be one of those nights when dinner is served, and everyone at the table just sighs and thinks to themselves, "Well, I guess I have to pretend to like this." :laugh:
 
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