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Artichoke Salad
1/4 peck Jerusalem arti- 2 tablespoonfuls chopped parsley French dressing 2 tablespoonful capers 1 teaspoonful grated horseradish 1 tablespoonfuls chopped red pepper Wash and scrape the artichokes; boil them in boiling salted water till tender--the water should contain a little lemon juice and butter. Drain and slice them, and while they are hot pour over them a French dressing made of three parts olive oil to one of vinegar, the horseradish, and the necessary salt and pepper.
Divide into ramequins and set away to get very cold. Garnish, when sending to table, with chopped parsley, capers, and peppers.
A cold sunchoke salad dressed while hot, which is the point of it: the warm slices drink up the oil and vinegar in a way cold ones never will.
- A quarter peckA peck is a dry measure of 8 quarts, so a quarter peck is 2 quarts of tubers, very roughly 2 1/2 to 3 lb depending on how they pack. Enough for a generous side salad for several people.
- Not artichokesJerusalem artichokes are sunchokes, the knobbly tubers of a perennial sunflower, unrelated to globe artichokes. They have no leaves or choke; buy them firm, with taut skin and no soft spots.
- ScrapingThe skins are thin and edible; scraping is mainly cosmetic and is fiddly on very knobbly tubers. Scrub hard instead if you prefer, and drop the peeled or cut pieces into acidulated water at once, since the cut flesh browns quickly.
- The lemon and butter in the waterThe acid keeps the flesh pale and also keeps it firm. Sunchokes go from crisp to collapsing in a short window, so start testing at 10 minutes and pull them while a knife still meets slight resistance.
- Dress them hotThe recipe is explicit about pouring the dressing over while the slices are hot, and warm slices take up oil and vinegar more readily than cold ones.
- The dressingThree parts olive oil to one of vinegar, with the horseradish, salt and pepper worked in. Grate fresh horseradish if you can get it; prepared horseradish already contains vinegar, so hold back a little of the vinegar if you use it.
- RamequinsHere these are small individual china or earthenware dishes for serving, not the modern souffle dish specifically. Any small bowl or wide-mouthed glass will do; chill until very cold, as the recipe directs.
- A note on digestionSunchokes store their carbohydrate as inulin, which passes undigested and is well known for causing wind in people unused to it. A modest first helping is sensible.
Jerusalem artichokes are native to North America and were being grown and eaten by indigenous peoples long before European contact; they travelled to Europe in the early seventeenth century and came back into American cookbooks as a slightly genteel vegetable. The name is a double misnomer, with "Jerusalem" generally traced to a corruption of the Italian girasole, sunflower, and "artichoke" to a supposed likeness in flavour. Here they are sliced, chilled, and sent to table in the ramequins themselves.