This is a lovely, creamy, comforting dish which goes particularly well with venison (especially pomegranate venison).

NB: it takes about an hour and a half – ALLOW TIME.

However, it keeps well for four or five days in the fridge, and it also freezes well.

Recipe for celeriac dauphinois with accents of red onion

for four

• 2 tbsp lemon juice (juice of one medium lemon* – see note below – bottled or squeezy lemon juice is fine)
• 1 small celeriac, weighing about 600g
• 2 medium FLOURY potatoes (King Edward or Maris Piper)
• 1 red onion
• 300 ml tub/½ pint/1¼ cups double cream
• smoked salt and Indonesian long pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 210°C (use the top right aga oven)
2. peel (use a potato peeler) and quarter the celeriac and slice to the thickness of a euro coin
3. pour the lemon juice over, coating the celeriac slices
4. peel and thinly slice the potato, and add to celeriac
5. chop or slice the onion finely
6. in an ovenproof dish layer the celeriac, the potato, the onion, the cream, being generous at each layer with the seasoning – aim to achieve about three layers, topping finally with cream.
7. cover with foil and bake for about 45 minutes (in the top right oven if you have an aga) then take the foil off and bake for another 30 minutes – it should be crispy (but not dry) and bubbling. If planning to freeze take it out a little before this stage and crisp up when you reheat.

*for something like this it is absolutely fine to use the lemon juice in bottles or little squeezy plastic lemons. For reassurance look at the test carried out by the Huffington Post. OK, in a lemon salad dressing fresh lemon juice is better, but in this recipe the lemon is really only being used to prevent the celeriac from going brown, the instant, easier, to-hand stuff is fine.

For a potato only dauphinois recipe go to creamy-dreamy dry stone wall potatoes dauphinois.