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Puree of Jerusalem Artichokes
Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into a saucepan; let it melt, then throw into it 2 bay leaves, 1 sliced onion, 3 pounds of Jerusalem artichokes washed, pared, and sliced, and half a pound of bacon in rashers. Keep these well stirred in the boiling butter for about ten minutes; then add to them, gradually, 1/2 pint of stock. Let all boil up together until the vegetables are thoroughly cooked; then add 1/2 pint more stock, stir it well, add pepper and salt, and serve with toasted sippets.
An English-style vegetable dish that reads as a stew until the last word of the title: nothing in the text tells you to purée it, so that step has to be inferred.
- Finish the puréeDespite the name, no mashing or sieving is directed. Pull out the bay leaves and the bacon, then pass the artichokes and onion through a food mill or blend them smooth, thinning with the second half-pint of stock to the consistency you want. The bacon can be chopped and stirred back in or laid on top.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. It is a generous amount for 3 lb of vegetables and is doing the work of a sweating fat, not a sauce.
- Jerusalem artichokesSold today as sunchokes. They are neither artichokes nor from Jerusalem. Peeled slices brown fast, so hold them in acidulated water if you are not cooking immediately; 3 lb unpeeled yields roughly 2 1/2 lb prepared.
- Half a pint of stockOne US cup, or 10 fl oz if the book is following imperial measure. Either works here since the second addition is adjusted by eye. Chicken or veal stock suits it; the bacon already brings salt, so taste before seasoning.
- Ten minutes in boiling butterThe text says boiling butter, but moderate heat serves better here: let the onion and artichoke soften without colouring, or the finished purée darkens.
- Rashers of baconUnsmoked streaky or pancetta will let the artichoke's faint sweetness through better than heavily smoked supermarket bacon. Half a pound is 8 oz.
- SippetsSmall triangles or dice of bread toasted or fried in butter, scattered over at the table. Cut them from a firm white loaf and add them at the last moment.
- A note on digestionSunchokes store carbohydrate as inulin, which many people do not digest comfortably in quantity. Three pounds would stretch to roughly half a dozen first-course servings.