Does anyone grow or cook with Sun chokes also known as Jerusalem Artichokes?

K

karennoca

Well-known member
I am cooking out of the cookbook, Jerusalem and wanted to try a chicken recipe using them. Had to grow them because I could not find any here. We finally dug them up two days ago and they are beautiful but tasteless. Additionally, it seems a few growers at the Farmer;s Market decided to grown them, as well, and theirs were also tasteless. I may be throwing them all out. In reading up on them, article stated they taste much like artichokes, can cause gas in lots of folks or upset tummies. I did get the upset tummy. I would have preferred the artichoke taste.

 
I've subbed them in a chicken giambotta. There are lots of varieties of it but this one uses

chick peas, artichoke quarters, fennel....

I'm sure my recipe is somewhere..............

What about in slaw? Don't you use it in a cole slaw?

 
This is the very first experience with sun chokes. Since they are tasteless for both of us I can't

see using them in anything.. I did a lot of reading about them and it seems many others find them tasteless as well. I wonder if it is kind of like the mysterious cilantro thing, where some folks love it and others think it tastes like soap!

 
Sorry, can't help...But it put a smile when you said I couldn't find them, so I decided to grow them

 
I had to do that back in 1980 with arugula. One shop in the big city sold it briefly and I

sweet-talked the produce guy into giving me some with roots. I planted them and saved some with leaves until they seeded. And grew it myself from then on.

 
They are well known in the South--as a pickle. I have never

detected "artichoke" taste==just crunch and the pickle. I wouldn't bother, personally.

 
I was visiting a good friend who lived in Bermuda in the early 90's. We were in their main grocery

store; and out of the blue; they asked over the loud speaker "how much is the cost of arugula?" It was the silliest thing. Everyone shopping hushed up and repeated... "arugula?".... and then there was a run towards the vegetable area to see if there was any left. Apparently, arugula in Bermuda in the 90's was unheard of.... I suggested to my friend she should grow, but she did not have the interest. To this day, still makes me smile thinking of the store. It was a mob, everyone leaving their carts, (2 I saw had small children in them!) running to find arugula! : )
Not everyone was able to partake, so they were literally splitting up the "bunch" and sharing....

 
I had a company in Bermuda so was there often. My lawyer told me about PEI (Prince Edward Island)

potatoes and how revered they were there. He said that they really didn't even make it off the boats when they came in. People would just go down to the docks when the news was out and buy directly before they hit the stores.

Living on an island is truly a unique way of life.

 
WAIT! Before you throw them out please try this recipe........

I don't know if they taste differently here or not but this is delicious. I serve it often and have never heard of someone not feeling well.
This is not my grandmother's Sofrito but it is great..




REC: My grandmother's Sofrito (meatball stew with potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes)
This is a very cold-weather dish, but it's
delicious. Jerusalem artichokes are not the
same thing as regular artichokes. They're
sometimes called "sunchokes" and they're
little knotty ugly-looking rooty things that
taste just delicious when they're cooked, and
lend lots of flavor to everything else in the
pot.

Simcha Haviv's Sofrito

1 pkg ground beef
2 eggs
1 large onion, minced
2 finely chopped garlic cloves
About 1 cup water
Handful Chopped parsley
Handful of chopped mint or some dried mint
Salt and pepper to taste
Healthy dose cumin (about 1 T)
Quite a generous shaking of paprika (more
than the cumin - 1 1/2 to 2 T)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 big can chopped tomatoes or 2 of the small
cans
Same volume Potatoes as meatballs, peeled and
cut into thick slices
Half as many Jerusalem artichokes as potatoes
(in volume, that is - they're little), peeled
and cut into halves or thirds

Make meatballs: Mix together meat with all
ingredients except canned tomatoes, onions,
water, artichokes and potatoes (can also put
about 1/3 cup water into them). Fry the
onion very little time until just barely
golden, take out of oil. Add this to
meatball mixture.
In same oil, fry the potatoes until golden,
then fry the meatballs (after letting them
sit about 10 min). Put all in a pot, the
meatballs in the bottom and the potatoes and
Jerusalem artichokes on top, add the chopped
canned tomatoes, add 3/4 glass water or more,
add salt, pepper, an extra dash cumin and
cook in a covered pot 3/4 hr. to 1 hr. If
you let it cook longer on low low low heat
it'll taste really good.

 
I was on PEI and had several potato dishes. They were good, but-honestly--tasted like potatoes USED

to taste here decades ago. I think they're just doing it the old fashion way with original potato stock...instead of messing around with genetically modified crapola that can sit around for months.

 
Thanks Elaine but we threw them all out... I tried frying them, no taste

I peeled and mashed some with butter...nothing. They are a lot of work to clean up and forget peeling, too many nooks and crannies. I was so disappointed because I had planted them in a very large clay pot, gave them good soil, lots of sun, water, and let them sit until after the first frost. Granted they were lovely little knobby things, but having no taste just turns me off. I do think they offered a flavor to the chicken dish I made from Jerusalem, because we could not figure out what the underlying taste was coming from. Not the shallots, nor the garlic, or lemon.....or the spices. Whatever it was, we did not like that one flavor we detected.

 
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