What to Do with Sunchoke?
I got sunchokes in my CSA share this week. What should I do with them?
(also got spinach, purple kale, cabbage too, incorporating those is a plus!)
Thanks!
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25 Comments:
http://www.chezus.com/2008/11/13/sunchokes-again/
This was popular with the SE crowd.
JerzeeTomato at 11:33PM on 01/09/09
i slice them up and put them in salads, i have them growing wild all over... i've seen a recipe for gratin style... looked good.
pooch at 11:58PM on 01/09/09
?Sunchoke?- What is a sunchoke?
dmcavanagh at 12:12AM on 01/10/09
The Pennsylvania Dutch pickle them. I never had a recipe but made them several times using a standard bread and butter pickle recipe with a little less sugar. There are a bunch of recipes if you Google.
I found they got mushy if processed so I just made them refrigerator pickles. You definitely want them crunchy.
Blue Iris at 12:18AM on 01/10/09
@dmcavanagh: A sunchoke used to be called a Jerusalem artichoke although it has nothing to do with either Jerusalem or artichokes. It is a smallish starchy but crisp tuber, more like jicama than anything I can think of, but different, with a more earthy taste. They look like small, thin skinned new potatoes.
The plant is a tall and pretty sunflower. They grow wild around old farms in the Northeast and Midwest.
Blue Iris at 12:28AM on 01/10/09
@Blue Iris-thanks for the answer. I live in the Northeast and have been around a lot of old farms, and have never heard the term sunchoke, and I'll bet I'm not the only one who read the topic and said "that the hell is a sunchoke".
dmcavanagh at 12:37AM on 01/10/09
The French make soup with them. They're girasoles, I believe, and the soup I've had was swell.
lemons at 12:38AM on 01/10/09
lemons is right. The Jerusalem part of the old name came from someone mis-translating girasol which, as I remember, means "turn toward the sun" in Italian. As many know, most sunflowers follow the sun across the sky each day.
Blue Iris at 12:43AM on 01/10/09
There's more to Serious Eats than just food!
dmcavanagh at 12:58AM on 01/10/09
Thanks everyone for the fyi Learn something new everyday. I myself didn't know they changed the name to sunchokes but it makes sense now.
pjracz10 at 6:02AM on 01/10/09
I have peeled, sliced and sauteed them before as a side dish veggie. They have a nice texture and a nutty flavor. I also worked at a restaurant where they made a sunchoke puree to serve with grilled beef.
Have fun with your CSA goodies! I'm jealous you have fresh food where you are right now. (I'm buried in the snow)
veggieout at 7:26AM on 01/10/09
I tried making them into latkes - didn't care for the crunchiness aspect. But they do make a good mash once cooked, or you can thinly slice and sautee with garlic and oil - bit of salt at the end to bring out the flavors.
CityMinx at 9:45AM on 01/10/09
Wow, thanks guys! I think I'll puree them, and depending on how that goes it may turn into a soup.
@veggieout - I have three feet of snow in my backyard, and last week the roads were so icy I couldn't even get my car up the hill I live on (the cavalier normally does really well in snow, too). Thanks to Arizona's vastly varied landscape, we're a mere two hour drive from nice warm weather, and that is where my CSA comes from. I guess Phx is good for something! :P
joyyy at 10:10AM on 01/10/09
@joyyy -- you have the best of both worlds--snowmen and sunchokes!
but I wouldn't give up my Atlantic seafood for anything..mmm.
veggieout at 2:07PM on 01/10/09
I still do not know what a sunchoke is,can you be a little more spacific,I lived in vermont for 11yrs. and used to pick fiddle heads,they acualy can them in maine.I know poke weed or a weed that grows by cow pastures,is that it?pammy
pammy at 2:54PM on 01/10/09
@pammy- Google sunchoke, than go to the Wikipedia site. They have a good write-up and picture.
dmcavanagh at 5:33PM on 01/10/09
At Batali's restaurant Otto in Manhattan they do this amazing salad with escarole, and I think hazelnuts and a ricotta-salata-like cheese, and lemon and olive oil. It's awesome.
Kerry Saretsky at 2:25PM on 01/12/09
A friend of mine gave me a bag this past Fall.
They're very versatile since they can be eaten raw or cooked.
They have a nutrient in them that is good for diabetics called inulin (not insulin) which is stored in the tuber.
They're actually in the sunflower family.
I've used them in soups and stews and insalad, but the simplest way is just to wash them well and roast them at 375 degrees with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and an optional bit of rosemary.
Grifola frondosa at 3:48PM on 01/12/09
Oh, my absolute favorite way to eat sunchokes (or Jerusalem artichokes, as I call them) is in relish form. It may be a little more labor than you're willing, but it is so worth it. I posted a recipe here:
http://macandcheesereview.blogspot.com/2007/03/artichoke-relish.html
Otherwise, I like them sliced thinly and eaten on a salad of fresh greens. Don't waste your time peeling them.
ricedream24 at 4:50PM on 01/12/09
Ironically, I was planning on cooking with sunchokes tonight! I make a sunchoke risotto- peel and slice them, and incorporate them in with the broth.
nyclocavore at 5:05PM on 01/12/09
Parboil them, peel them with a spoon, and roast them.
SqueezeBottle at 6:14PM on 01/12/09
I agree with Pooch - they are good thinly sliced, grated or matchsticked into a salad
Kath the cook at 6:27PM on 01/12/09
i like them prepared the same way as mashed potatoes...
hrwalf at 5:44PM on 01/13/09
Hasn't anyone else had problems after eating them? I was sure I had poisoned us all after I fixed them the first & last time. Doing a search for more info I found someone who said that they were gas forming when cooked but eaten raw didn't cause as much of a problem. I then could breath, I really did serve sun chokes and not something poisonous.
I just found this ~ Gerard's Herbal, printed in 1621, quotes the English planter John Goodyer on Jerusalem artichokes:
"which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men."
windjunkie at 10:54PM on 01/13/09
Make sunchoke soup:
http://www.goodeater.org/2/post/2009/01/goodeating-jerusalem-artichoke-and-brown-butter-soup.html
GoodEaterKenji at 10:07AM on 01/15/09