Also known as sunchokes, the Jerusalem Artichokes are being rediscovered as a versatile and delicately, nutlike flavored vegetable. Served raw and sliced, they make an excellent crisp, crunchy finger food just sprinkled with salt or served with your favorite dip. Here are some other serving and recipe suggestions for Jerusalem Artichokes.

Boiled: Scrub tubes well in cold, running water, using a very stiff brush. Cook in boiling, salted water until just tender crisp. Remove sunchokes from the liquid, peel or rub the skin off and cut in cubes or slices, season with melted butter, salt and pepper.

Steamed: Cook scrubbed tubers in a small amount of water in a heavy saucepan with tight lid. As soon as the water comes to a boil, turn the heat down to avoid scorching. Steam until tender crisp, peel and serve like boiled sunchokes.

Creamed: Serve hot cooked cubes of tubers in a cream sauce. For variations, a dash of nutmeg or sweet basil added to the sauce brings out delicate flavor of the sunchokes. Add grated cheddar cheese to provide a hearty accent.

Sauteed: Scrub thoroughly and cut in fairly thin slices. In a heavy skillet, melt butter and sauté the sunchokes, stirring frequently. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Cook until crisp-tender.

Mashed: Boil or steam sunchokes until tender. Rub off skins and mash or put through a food mill. Season with butter, salt, and pepper. The texture will be more moist and not as fluffy as mashed potatoes.

With Salad: Mix cubed cooked sunchokes with your favorite Italian dressing and chill. Add celery and pimiento and toss lightly to blend. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

With Vegetables: Raw sliced or diced sunchokes may be added to almost any other vegetable. Try them with cooked carrots, string beans, peas, or spinach. Just add sunchokes to the cooked vegetable, heat through and serve. The sunchokes will give everyday vegetables an Oriental flair.

With Meat: Sunchokes are excellent extender for meatloaf. Nutritious, economical, and flavorful, a cup of sunchokes will give your meatloaf new interest. Also, put sunchokes around a roast for last few minutes of cooking time. They are an excellent substitute for potatoes. Cubed sunchokes can also be added to beef stew during the last minutes of cooking.

About the Author: Pete Carcione is a published author, a featured produce expert in the San Francisco Chronicle, Packer and Produce News, and CBS Radio, and a third generation wholesale produce man with over 40 years experience. For more information or to buy his book, pls visit TheGreenGrocerCookbook.Com

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