Donna van Veghel-Wood graduated from the two year Culinary Arts Programme at George Brown College including three month Italian Culinary Arts programme in Italy. Worked for five and half years at "JK ROM" Restaurant and Catering company with Jamie Kennedy. Started and ran "donna&co." catering company for five years. Presently, owner of "frankie's ristorante" in Uxbridge.
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The jerusalem Artichoke
Sunchoke. Helianthus tuberous. Growing under the ground like potatoes, but with the appearance of fresh ginger, the Jerusalem artichoke is not in any way related to the familiar Globe artichoke. This 'artichoke' is native to North America and thus, very easy to grow. It is actually harder to curtail its growth to prevent it from taking over your garden and has few, if any, pests or diseases. A few years ago, I planted some Jerusalem artichokes in front of my front deck at home. They grew eight or ten feet tall so Joel and I dug them all up and removed them to the far garden. The following spring, the moved artichokes grew tall and healthy as well as the ones we thought we had moved from the deck. They are prolific!
Therefore, for easy gardening and eating local, find a friend with Jerusalem artichokes, and plant in early spring or the fall. By late August they bloom in small yellow 'sunflower' like flowers. By October, push a shovel into the earth at the base of some of your artichoke plants and reach down and pull out your bounty. Leave some of the tubers to grow next year for a never-ending supply.
I first encountered 'sunchokes' when I worked in the city. A basket full of sunchokes was brought in and I thought they were pieces of smooth ginger. After scrubbing them I made a puree for stuffing ravioli. The scent was heady; an earthy yet sunny odour, if that is possible, was my description. I had never smelled anything that smelled so much like earth, except earth, itself.
TO USE: Scrub the artichokes well, getting into all the crevices. You can peel them like ginger or potatoes, but if they are fresh out of the garden, just scrub. They can be used as you would potatoes. SLICE some of your sunchokes and fry in a little olive oil and then season with salt and pepper. Add a few sliced pieces of garlic for additional flavour and serve as a side for dinner. Or, thinly slice the sunchoke and fry in oil until crisp and enjoy a new flavour of crisp or potato chip.
CHOP well-scrubbed sunchokes into small pieces and add to your salad as a crunchy addition.
Or, make a puree. Peel around all of the bumps of the sunchokes and boil in water until tender. Mash with a little butter or olive oil, salt and pepper, and serve a delicious new mash for dinner.
My favourite way to use the sunchoke is in soup. In a large soup pot, sauté one chopped onion and three (or more) cloves of garlic until the onion is transparent. Scrub the sunchokes well and chop into pieces. Peel, wash and cut up two potatoes. Add both to the onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with stock - vegetable or chicken- and bring to a simmer. When the sunchokes are tender, remove all from heat and puree in a food processor until smooth. Add more stock as necessary. Taste for seasoning and serve in heated bowls.
Try locally grown sunchokes. Eat in harmony with the planet. Live in harmony with your universe.
