Best ways to get the smoothest purée's

After robo cous or another chopper pass it through a Chinoise and cheesecloth.

fine dice or thin slice stick blend with reduced heavy cream or condensed milk and butter pass thru the Chinoise

I'd cook until tender, the pass through a food mill.

There's nothing magic about a chinoise; at least when it comes to purees it might as well be an ordinary sieve.  The finer the holes, the finer the puree.  A chinoise is especially useful for pressing the "essence" out of cooked vegetable without forcing the too-cooked vegetables themselves into the stock, gravy, or sauce. 

In the sieve class (which includes chinoise), the best tool for getting very fine purees is usually a tami because they can be bought with get such fine screens. 

Food mills are in the same "not magic for purees" category.  Mills are very good about separating skin and fiber, but in terms of really silky purees are unexceptional. 

Stick blenders usually don't do ultra-smooth purees very well.  They leave lumps except when used in tall, narrow containers with lots of liquid.

"Robot Coupe" is a professional-line food processor brand name. Robot Coupes don't do a better job than Cuisinart, Kitchen-Aid or whatever.  From a results standpoint, all of the good food processors are pretty much the same.  

If you want a really velvety puree, break up the cooked celeriac with a ricer, coarse sieve, chinoise, food mill or whatever, then pass it through a fine tami or fine sieve.  Alternatively, do the whole thing in a food processor.  It won't be the nth degree of smooth, but it will go a helluva lot faster.  If you use a food processor, be careful not to overwork the celeriac or your puree will be gummy. 

BDL

Quote:

Originally Posted by boar_d_laze 

If you use a food processor, be careful not to overwork the celeriac or your puree will be gummy. 

 

BDL

Interesting... I've noticed that with potatoes, not with celeriac. Potatoes in a FP become gummy quickly, and I understand it's the starches in the potatoes that turn into sugar or something? The taste actually changes, and the consistency is like paste. 

I haven't noticed it with celeriac. I tend to overprocess my celeriac in order to thoroughly break it down to get a smoother puree. It has worked great for me and I get a fairly smooth puree (still lumpy but the lumbs are very small - it doesn't look perfect but the texture is pretty good on the palate). It still does not turn gummy at all. 

So ... is this really true of celeriac? Does celeriac, like potato, have starch? Have you experienced the gummyness of overprocessed celeriac yourself? 

I've never been as far as using a chinois or a tamis for celeriac puree, so my tricks for as smooth as possible are: 

- thoroughly peel the celeriac: the exterior as a fairly thick fibrous part, so if you don't remove it completely then it will stay tough even after cooking. 

- thoroughly cook the celeriac: if one or two pieces are even slightly undercooked they won't process and will give you big lumps. 

- thoroughly process the celeriac: keep the FP turning for a long time, the keep it turning a little longer. The more you process the smoother it gets. 

Cooked well, immersion blender, pour/press through a tamis. 

A robo coupe will certainly puree the every living hell out of it too, as mentioned, but I would worry about over working the starches.

Thats because high starch items like potato will do that celery and celriac don't have many if any starches contained in them .They hav e plenty of water though.