The Star of the Show

These knobbly looking things are called Jerusalem artichokes, or sometimes Sunchokes if you are on the American continent. They are easy to grow, simple to cook and quite tasty to eat, with a flavour all their own, but they have a flaw that makes them all but unusable. They contain a form of sugar, inulin, that most people are unable to digest. This leads to a side effect of uncontrollable flatulence. Since I've grown some, I thought I'd better make a meal with them before Mr. Stripey Cat arrives at the weekend. Such are the benefits of living alone.

There are lots of recipes for these difficult tubers. I particularly like a Turkish one where they are simply simmered with oil and lemon juice but a pot full of that might just be too much for me to finish up on my own by Friday. A good way of getting a taste of the vegetable without overdoing it is to mix them with mashed potatoes.

Clean your jerusalem artichokes and cook them in their skins until they are completely soft. You'll need a ratio of about 1 artichoke to 3 medium potatoes.

You can cook them in the same pan as the potatoes but if they're large they may take longer than the spuds to cook. Mash your potatoes with plenty of oil or margarine and then squeeze the soft insides of the artichoke into the pan and mash it all up together. It will keep warm for while in a covered dish in the oven if you need to prepare other things to go with them.

I served mine with some tofu triangles simmered in a beer and onion gravy. I put a tad too much white pepper in the gravy but you can't tell that from the picture.



Happy farting!