This recipe is from one of the first cookery books I ever bought – the classic Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson.
Serves 4-5
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-45 minutes
Ingredients
750 g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
25 g butter
900 ml vegetable stock
300 ml milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the vegetables. Cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes without browning. Shake the pan occasionally to prevent sticking.
Add the stock and seasoning and simmer until the vegetable are tender. Liquidise the mixture (I use a stick blender in the pan), add the milk and reheat. Taste for seasoning. Serve with a swirl of cream and some chopped parsley.
This quick and easy recipe was given to me by Joan, an ex-colleague who was very fond of Jerusalem artichokes. We’ve got plenty in our veg boxes this week thanks to the Hoare family at Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick in north Cornwall. I have no idea where she got the idea from, possibly Elizabeth David.
Serves 2-3
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Ingredients
500 g Jerusalem artichokes
olive oil
2-3 tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
parsley
chives
Method
Boil the artichokes in salted water, straining them before they are quite cooked. Cut them in halves and sauté them gently in a little olive oil with the tomatoes, garlic, and chives and parsley.
My husband Frank found this recipe from Rosie Sykes’ The Kitchen Revolution on the Low Sizergh Barn website while looking for something new to do with the Jerusalem artichokes in our veg boxes this week. Then, even better, he cooked it for tea last night! If you are ever up in the Lake District, the shop and tearoom at Low Sizergh Barn are well worth a visit.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
60g butter
4 sprigs of thyme
Zest and juice of half a lemon
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
80g whole hazelnuts
3 leeks, trimmed and finely sliced
400g Jerusalem artichokes, sliced into pound coin-thick circles
250g filo pastry
60g soft goat’s cheese
Method
Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and all the butter to a small pan over a low heat. Add half the thyme, and all the lemon zest and garlic. Cover and warm gently. If any butter solids come to the top, skim them off. Set aside until needed.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Toast the hazelnuts in the warming oven for a few minutes until light golden. While warm, wrap in a tea towel and rub them to remove the skins. Once cool, finely chop the nuts.
Add the remaining oil to a pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks and thyme leaves stripped from the remaining stalks, cover and cook gently for about 10 minutes until soft. Turn the heat up, add the lemon juice and stir. Let the leeks become pretty dry, season to taste, take off the heat and set aside. Meanwhile, boil the artichokes in salted water for around 3 minutes until soft. Strain and run under cold water.
Brush a baking sheet with the infused oil mixture. Lay out one or two sheets of filo to create a 30cm square. Butter the pastry and scatter with a quarter of the hazelnuts, cover with another layer of filo and press down. Repeat to create three more layers on top of the first. Cover the pastry base with soft leeks, then arrange the artichokes on top in overlapping rows.
Season and brush with infused oil, crumble the goat’s cheese on top and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is crisp and the cheese has melted nicely.
Cut the tart into quarters. Serve with some bitter leaves dressed with orange.
If you don’t know what to do with Jerusalem artichokes try this dish. You need to prepare it ahead of time as it requires at least 2 hours marinating in the fridge though overnight is better. It is taken from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Jerusalem and he suggests serving it with mejadra, a rice and lentil dish, though this weekend we are going to try it with new potatoes and a green salad.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 30-40 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
450g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into 1.5 cm wedges lengthways
3 Tbs lemon juice
8 chicken thighs
12 banana shallots, peeled and cut in half lengthways
12 large garlic cloves, sliced
1 lemon, cut in half lengthways and then thinly sliced
1 tsp saffron threads
50ml olive oil
150ml cold water
1 1/2 Tbs pink peppercorns, slightly crushed
10g fresh thyme leaves
40g tarragon leaves, chopped
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Method
Put the Jerusalem artichokes in a pan, cover with plenty of water and half the lemon juice, Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10-20 minutes, until tender but not soft. Drain and leave to cool.
Place the Jerusalem artichokes and all the remaining ingredients, excluding the remaining lemon juice and half the tarragon in a large mixing bowl and use your hands to mix everything together well. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight, or for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 240°C/ Gas Mark 9. Arrange the chicken pieces, skin-side up in the centre of a roasting tin and spread the remaining ingredients around the chicken. Roast for 30 minutes. Cover the tin with foil and cook for a further 15 minutes. At this point the chicken should be completely cooked. Remove from the oven and add the reserved tarragon and lemon juice. Stir well, season to taste and serve.
With a selection of roots in our boxes this week – and with the weather getting colder – it seems a good idea to try this ‘comfort food’ recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day. He says that while it’s not exactly ‘light’, it’s certainly less rich than a creamy dauphinoise-style gratin.
You could also substitute other seasonal roots such as Jerusalem artichokes, carrots or swede which would all work well. Good served with some big flat field mushrooms simply baked with some butter, garlic and cheese, and some good bread.
Serves 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: about an hour
Ingredients
30g butter
2 onions, halved and sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 small celeriac
2 large potatoes
3 large parsnips
a couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves only, chopped
3 sage leaves, finely chopped
about 1.2 litres vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven the 180C/gas 4. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and use some of it to grease a large gratin dish. Add the onions to the pan and sauté over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until soft, then add the garlic and cook gently for a further minute or two.
Meanwhile, peel the celeriac, potatoes and parsnips and cut into slices the thickness of a 10p piece, slicing the parsnips lengthways. Spread out the celeriac in the gratin dish, season generously with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with half the onions and half the herbs. Layer the parsnips on top, then scatter the remaining onions and herbs on top and finish with a layer of potatoes.
Bring the stock to a simmer and add some salt and pepper, then pour over the vegetables to barely cover them (you may not need all of it). Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and continue to bake for another 30 minutes or so until the vegetables are cooked.
At this point, if there is still liquid covering the potatoes, spoon off a little and return the dish to the oven for 15 minutes or so, to brown the potatoes on the top. Serve piping hot.
In another attempt to find another tasty use for those artichokes, this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Every Day might fit the bill – and you don’t even need to peel them. He says, ‘The earthy flavour of roasted artichokes is delicious with toasted hazelnuts. They have a tendency to collapse into fluffiness when roasted, but keeping the skin on stops them breaking up too much.’
Serves 4-6
Preparation and cooking: 50 minutes
Ingredients
75g hazelnuts
600g jerusalem artichokes
4 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
2 sprigs of thyme
1-2 bay leaves
1 tsp hazelnut oil (optional)
½ lemon
a couple of handfuls of winter salad leaves (optional)
75g hard goat’s cheese, crumbled or shaved into strips with a vegetable peeler
salt and pepper
Method
First, toast the hazelnuts. Spread them out on a baking sheet in a single layer and place in an oven preheated to 180C/gas 4 for about 5 minutes, until lightly coloured and the skins blistered and cracked. Wrap in a clean tea towel for a minute and then rub vigorously with the towel until the skins fall off. Cool the chop very roughly or leave whole.
Turn up the oven to 190C/gas 5 and put a large roasting tin in to heat up. Scrub the artichokes well and cut into halves or quarters lengthways, depending on size – you need chunks about 1.5cm thick. Put them in a bowl and turn over in 3 tbsp of the oil with the thyme, bay and a little salt. Tip into the hot roasting tin and roast for about 35 minutes, until tender and lightly golden, turning them after about 15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
Whisk the remaining tbsp of oil with the hazelnut oil (if using), trickle it over the warm artichokes, squeeze on a good spritz of lemon juice and season with salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Turn them over gently with your hands to combine everything well. Add the hazelnuts and the salad leaves (if using), toss gently then divide between serving plates. Scatter over the crumbled or shaved goat’s cheese and serve.
The gentle, smoky flavour of this heart-warming recipe by Nigel Slater comes from the Jerusalem artichokes. It’s a perfect antidote to the cold winter weather we’re having in Cornwall at the moment. Find it in his cookbook Tender Volume 1.
Preparation / cooking: one hour
Serves: 4
Ingredients
8 really good pork sausages
olive oil
4 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
250g small mushrooms
500g Jerusalem artichokes
1 large lemon
1 tsp fennel seeds
light stock or water to cover – about 500ml
a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Steamed cavolo nero, spring cabbage or purple sprouting broccoli, to serve
Method
Brown the sausages all over in a little oil in a deep casserole. Set aside. Peel the onions and cut them into thick segments, then add to the pan in which you browned the sausages, pouring in a little more oil if you need to. Let the onions soften over a moderate heat till they are tender enough to crush with a wooden spoon. Don’t hurry this; it should take about 15 to 20 minutes. Peel and finely slice the garlic and add it to the onions. Halve the mushrooms and add them too.
Peel or simply scrub the artichokes, then cut them in half. Add them to the pan, pushing the onions aside, and let them colour slightly. Now tip the sausages back into the pan. Cut the lemon into fat chunks and tuck them in along with the fennel seeds and a good seasoning of salt and black pepper.
Pour over enough stock or water to cover and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the vegetables are truly tender. If there is too much liquid, turn up the heat and let it reduce a little. Stir in the parsley, check the seasoning and eat with the greens.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s timely recipe from last Saturday’s Guardian Weekend magazine: ‘Slightly sweet and vaguely mushroomy, jerusalem artichoke is here combined with goat’s cheese, egg and lemon in a very elegant dish.’ Make it in ramekins or shallow, ovenproof soup bowls.
Serves 4 to 6
Preparation/cooking: about an hour
Ingredients
grated zest and juice of half a lemon
300g jerusalem artichokes
30g walnuts
60g unsalted butter
25g plain flour
250ml milk
3 small free-range eggs, separated
¼tsp chilli flakes
½tbsp chopped thyme
120g hard goat’s cheese, grated
¼tsp salt
Method
Heat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Put a baking sheet on the top shelf. This will help the soufflés rise.
Pour the lemon juice into a pan and add enough water to half-fill the pan. Peel the artichokes and immediately drop them in the water so they don’t discolour. Once they’re all peeled, bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes, until soft. Drain and transfer to a small food processor bowl. Work to a purée, adding a little water if needed to bring it together. You will need exactly 130g of purée. Put the ramekins in the fridge to chill.
Meanwhile blitz the nuts until powdery. Melt half the buter, and brush inside the ramekins. Spoon walnut powder into each ramekin and turn the dishes so it coats the base and sides. Tip out any excess powder.
Over a moderate heat, melt the remaining butter in a medium pan. Stir in the flour, cook for a minute, then gradually add the milk, stirring, until the sauce is thick and bubbles appear on the surface.
In a large bowl, mix the 130g jerusalem artichoke purée, the egg yolks, chilli, thyme, cheese, lemon zest and salt. Add the sauce and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool down.
Put the egg whites in a large, clean bowl and whisk until stiff but not dry. Add a little of the egg white mix to the artichoke base and stir to loosen, then fold in the remaining egg whites with a large metal spoon, taking care to retain as much air as possible.
Fill up each ramekin with the soufflé mix so it comes up 1.5cm short of the top. Place on the heated baking sheet, and bake for 12-18 minutes, until golden brown and risen well. Serve at once.
Jane Grigson gives this recipe in both her English Food and Vegetable cookbooks. Ideal for the first appearance in the boxes of our own Camel CSA Jerusalem artichokes.
In general, because they are so knobbly, rather than peeling them raw, it’s best to scrub and parboil Jerusalem artichokes for about five minutes, refresh in cold water and then rub the skins off.
Jerusalem artichokes have a bit of a reputation for causing wind so, as Grigson advises, eat: “A little and not too much, too often.”
Serves 6
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
500g Jerusalem artichokes or 250g each artichokes and potatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ stick celery, chopped
125g butter
2 rashers unsmoked bacon or 60g ham
1 litre light chicken or vegetable stock
250ml milk (optional)
salt, pepper
6 tbsp cream
chopped parsley and chives
Method
Scrub, parboil and then peel the artichokes as suggested above. Cut up the artichokes and, if you are using potatoes, peel and slice them. Put them with the onion, garlic and celery in a large pan with half the butter. Cover tightly and stew over a low heat for 10 minutes, giving the pan an occasional shake or stir. Now add the bacon or ham and cook a moment or two longer. Pour in the stock and leave to simmer until all the vegetables are soft. Liquidise or sieve, Reheat, adding water or the milk to dilute to taste. Correct the seasoning. Finally stir in the last of the butter, the cream and herbs. Serve with croutons of bread fried in butter.
