Sunday, February 28, 2010

Sunchokes, or take that you root vegetable, you!


I bought them at the farmers' market last week, partly because they seemed so farmers' marketie. Odd, lumpy brown things of indeterminate origin, they seemed to be challenging me. You want local? Here we are, they said with a sly smirk. Oh yeah? You wanna play that game? Well I can cook your ass. So I bought them.


 

Google yielded a number of recipes, but most of them had to do with soup or gratin. I wanted to roast them. Maybe it was the potato likeness, the very root vegetable-ness of them, but I had it in my head that they should be roasted.


 

So I cubed them (unpeeled) into pieces roughly ½ to 1", tossed them in olive oil and salt and pepper and roasted them at 400 for about 10 minutes. Tossed them again, and roasted another 10 or so. It's hard to say because we were watching the Olympics and my timer only speaks sotto voce. Not a good trait in a timer.


 

They were deelish. Soft and kinda sweet, with a richer flavor than potatoes. Next time I'd pay more attention to the tossing so that there would be more of the brown crispy parts. 



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