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Stewed Jerusalem Artichokes
Peel the artichokes and put them at once into vinegar and water to prevent them from discoloring. Cook until tender in boiling salted water. Take them out the moment they are done, or they will become tough. Serve with a highly seasoned cream sauce.
A short, sound method whose whole difficulty lies in the timing: Jerusalem artichokes go from firm to collapsing and then, oddly, back toward toughness if held in hot water.
- The hinge: pull them the instant they yieldTest with a skewer and lift them out the moment it slides through; small tubers cook quickly, larger ones take longer. Leaving them in the hot water past that point is what the original means by their becoming "tough."
- What they areJerusalem artichokes are the tubers of Helianthus tuberosus, a sunflower relative, sold now as sunchokes. They are unrelated to globe artichokes and need no trimming of leaves or choke.
- Acidulated waterThe cut flesh browns quickly. A tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice per quart of cold water is enough; drop each peeled tuber in as you go rather than peeling them all first.
- Peeling, or notThe knobbly shape makes peeling wasteful. Brushing them clean and paring only the worst lumps is one common modern approach; the skin is thin and edible, and cooking them in their jackets also works.
- Cut to one sizeWhole tubers of unequal size will not finish together. Halve or quarter the large ones so everything is roughly the same thickness.
- "Highly seasoned cream sauce"A béchamel of 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and a cup of milk, seasoned firmly with salt, white pepper, nutmeg or mustard, and finished with a little cream. The tubers are sweet and mild and want the sauce assertive.
- YieldAllow about 1 1/2 lb of tubers for four as a side dish.
- A note on digestionThe tubers store inulin rather than starch, which many people find gassy. Smaller portions are often suggested, and longer cooking is sometimes said to help.
Jerusalem artichokes are native to eastern North America, where they were cultivated before European contact, and reached Europe early in the seventeenth century. The name has nothing to do with Jerusalem; the usual explanation traces it to a corruption of the Italian girasole, sunflower, though that derivation is traditional rather than settled, and "artichoke" is said to refer to a supposed likeness in flavour to an artichoke bottom. The tuber was cheap and hardy, easy to grow in any neglected corner of a garden, and often finished with a white or cream sauce to make up for its mildness. It drifted out of general use before returning under the name sunchoke.