One of us is Swedish.
One of us is Italian, but you probably think she is Jewish.
She is eating a 3 Musketeers Bar and is really excited to tell you about sunchokes, AKA, Jerusalem Artichokes, which despite their names, are also not Jewish. But like her, they probably wish that they were.
Did you know that when you go to Google Image search and type in Jerusalem, Jerusalem Artichoke is the third entry? Did you also know that the Jerusalem Artichoke, in addition to not being a native of Jerusalem, is also not an artichoke? It is the tuber of the sunflower.
See? You know this guy:
And now you'll know how to cook this guy:
The skin is very thin, but you must remove it. This is arduous. You won't like doing it. You might get lazy and not get all the skin off. That's fine. Unless you're working for Daniel Boulud, who will kill you with his laser eyes. Probably the sunchokes will be very dirty when you buy them, so you must also wash them thoroughly. Then you must boil them in salted water until you can easily stick a fork through them. Then you will mash them. I prefer to use ye olde Cuisinart for this. I mash them with some butter, roasted garlic (or, failing that, garlic that you caramelized in some olive oil, or, failing that, minced garlic), salt, pepper, milk or cream (which you can cut with stock if you like), and low fat sour cream. Ratios are up to you, depending on how thick you want your mash. When they are done I like to mix in some dill and tarragon, but you don't have to (but you should). They have a wonderful, earthy (but not too) flavor. Sometimes I will roast some parsnips beforehand and throw them in with the JA's during the mashing. They are a delightful accompaniment to any protein or with a melange of other veggies. I just wanted to say melange. Good night.
sunchokes and i, well, we have a painful past.
ReplyDeletewe discussed this, they give me terrible unbelievably bad gas. should i not be so public about that? i just want to warn the kind person reading the comment section of your blog that regardless of their extreme and i do mean extreme deliciousness they should take it easy the first time they try them and see how they react.
i also wanted to say i desperatly want to try this. will you save me some the next time you make it? a spoonful is about all i can take.
i recently spotted a box of them somewhere too, i was also surprised. i always want to buy them and roast them, they are fantastic deep fried but deep frying doesn't belong in my home.