Huge success at the farmer’s market yesterday! Fall vegetables always excite me, so I’ll just try to get through all the random stuff I bought. Luckily most of it feels like it’ll go together in one way or another, I’ve got it roughly planned out and a bunch of components prepped and waiting in the fridge.

The celery roots were notably pretty at the market. Usually they look like mandrakes or something, but they were very tidy bulbs with celery tops still attached. (not the best tasting celery unfortunately). Started the soup with copious onions, butter and garlic, cooked them down, added the celeriac, and then simmered them all in milk and shiro (sweet white) miso. As it was cooking I added some juniper berries, caraway seeds and shiso, blended and strained the whole mix.

Topped off with some ribbons of shiso, crispy bacon cubes, and then some itty bitty bay scallops seared in the bacon fat. The shiso I got was flowering, so a sprinkled some of those on too, and some olive oil. Shiso is a beautiful and tasty Japanese herb in the basil/mint family, for those who don’t know. This one was a keeper (The Norwegian-in-residence gave particularly enthusiastic approval). Nerdy combinations, I know.