Jerusalem Artichoke/Sunchoke Recipes

OK folks, lets see what you've got.
I just dug my first harvest of J-chokes... wow... enough to choke a horse.  Four plants well spaced made as much as a 6 foot bed of potatoes with half the work and no water!

They are less starchy then potatoes so they fell apart as hashed browns.  The next batch mixed 25% j-choke to 75% potato was passable, and went down the 6-year old gullet with lots of ketchup.    I was going to try roasting with other winter roots.  They have a kind of burdock-like taste.  I don't know how to work with that (japanese cookery maybe??).

I just don't see how to gobble them down at the rate they produce!

Suggestions?

Au gratin can be a lifesaver, particularly with a good sharp cheddar.

It seems they might substitute well in potato leek soup, too.

I don't really know what burdock tastes like, but Mexican-style chorizo has a strong enough flavor to cover many sins. A quarter sausage, rendered, followed by about two cups of shredded root veggies and, once those are cooked, one or two eggs, fills a great burrito, appropriate for any meal. I mostly stick to the classic, potato, but potato mixed with onion and/or carrot is also tasty. (Spanish chorizo is way too dry, and expensive, for this use.) Epazote might be an appropriate flavor in this context, and I hear it also helps with the side-effects of sunchoke oligosaccharides (it's an herbal carminative).

Do J-chokes work in gnocchi, maybe with a garlic scape and sunflower seed pesto? Or, pureed, as the bulk of a white sauce? There are good, strong flavors in the Italian palette, like basil and fennel, that might be worth attempting to pair with that flavor.

I might puree them and mix with garbanzo bean flour, sauteed onions (plus maybe bell peppers, or peas and carrots, or whatever else), and enough water to make a loose batter, then fry and/or broil them with a generous splash of olive oil, in a large skillet, to make flatbread.

And of course, there are some stupid cop-outs, like feeding them to chickens, or growing a culture of Weizmann organisms on them to produce butanol engine fuel.

if you want to pan fry them like potatoes you gotta work fast and hot and you will have to cube them not shred them. they cook alot faster than potatoes. they are good raw too.

nice suggestions.. thanks!

how about wine?!  i discovered this recipe and am going to try it with the next batch of JAs...tho, instead of using the pectic enzyme, i would use egg shells...

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE WINE
  * 5-6 lbs Jerusalem artichoke tubers
  * 2 lbs dark or light brown sugar
  * 2 lemons
  * 2 oranges
  * 1/2 oz ginger root
  * 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
  * water to one gallon
  * 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  * wine yeast
Scrub Jerusalem artichoke tubers, do not peel. Boil tubers in about 7 pints of water until tender. Remove the Jerusalem artichokes for other uses and retain the water for the wine. Put sugar in the water, along with the thinly peeled rinds (no pith, please) of the lemons and oranges and their juice.
Thinly slice the ginger root and add to water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer 15-20 minutes while stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and strain water into primary fermenter.  Cover with sterile cloth and allow to cool to room temperature. Add pectic enzyme and set aside for 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and ferment 7 days Top off and set aside to ferment out. Rack after 60 days, top up and reattach airlock. Rack again after 2 months and again 2 months later to ensure fermentation does not restart, and rack into bottles.

John L. Skinner, Emeritus
Agricultural and Life Sciences,
University of Wisconsin

And of course, there are some stupid cop-outs, like feeding them to chickens, or growing a culture of Weizmann organisms on them to produce butanol engine fuel.

OK, Joel, I really want to hear more about this!  I've read a lot about butanol.

This question may sound a little green-but what artichoke varieties are best to grow in Missoula's climate?

hi seth!

we're growing Stampede and Red Fuseau here. we can have 5 days plus below -15F during our winter months.

Has anyone pickled JA's?

I will have a bumper crop this year and still have some left over from last year.

Last week I surrounded a #7 chicken with yukons, white and red skin potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunchokes, celery, onions and carrots.  Very yummy -  even to first time choke eaters.

Here is a recipe for preserving Jerusalem artichokes.
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/jerusalem-artichokes-pickle-recipe.htm

jerusulem artichoke sausage rolls
mush up par boiled JA with onion garlic etc ,basil and cooked brown rice
roll up in puff pastry cook
Basil is antidote for gas
i love the wine recepie!!

Interesting ideas! I thought there really was no way to eat large amounts of jerusalem artichokes except to feed them to a pig, and then eat the pig!

I got some factory pigs last year and they didnt really eat many fartychokes perhaps i was feeding em too much other stuff.

Going to try a JA and onion hash as a side with London broil tonight. Our first JA cooking experiment after our first year of growing them.
It's an adventure!

I am going to cut up some of my JA in slices and put it in my sauerkraut this winter. Supposed to be a good prebiotic. When fermented, a good probiotic too.
John S
PDX OR

I have not tried it yet but to me Jamie Oliver's recipes are always winner! So here you go:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/saut-ed-jerusalem-artichokes-with-garlic-and-bay-leaves/

J A wine!
Now your talking. Will try this next week.