sunchoke adventures

I have discovered the wonder of jersulem artichoke, otherwise known as sunchoke. We have a large and healthy patch of them that I planted by going to the grocery, buying a couple, and sticking them in the ground with the vague idea that perennial edibles were a good idea. I planned to learn to cook them later. When later arrived I roasted them with some other veggies in the hope that they would blend in. It was bad. Very bad. When all three of my diners look at me with that Look. I know I’m in trouble. My husband and two daughters looked at me with raised eyebrows and without a word said, “You really think this is food?” So I stopped my campaign of free local food without another word.

That was last year. This is a new year. So I was cleaning up the yard and came to the sunchoke patch again. I started digging with my turning fork, the easiest way to get rid of last years debris, and came across those small bumpy tubers again and decided to keep out the largest to experiment with. It’s a good thing I did because this time I looked in my favorite vegetable cookbook for inspiration. Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop suggested that I fry them in sunflower oil at a medium-high temperature for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Jack suggested a few other things, some lemon juice, salt, and parsley. I just sprinkled on some sea salt and squeezed out a pile of ketsup and my husband and I dug in. In Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons, he states that frying the jersaulem artichoke creates a watery mess. I am glad to say that he was dead wrong. He may have known where to get food in the wild, but I would ask Jack how to cook it. Those little fried rounds were delightful, and easy to prepare as well, since I didn’t have to peel them, just pop off the nubbies and slice. I’m looking forward to some local breakfasts of fried eggs and fried sunchokes. Without any dirty looks.