Catching a Rainbow

Jerusalem artichoke

The misnamed Jerusalem artichoke has no real link with Jerusalem at all and only a distant link to the more familiar Artichoke, both coming from the same family of plants the family Asteraceae or Compositae.
It is a relative of sunflower native to eastern North America, from the state of Maine to North Dakota, and south into some of Florida and Texas
It has a distinctive nutty flavor which has been suggested to be similar to that of glove artichoke hearts- being used in many recipes to replace or compliment potatoes. The plant which if left unattended can become an invasive weed is a wonderful source of an inexpensive but delicious food.

HISTORY.

Jerusalem artichokes were found being cultivated in North America and are said to have been introduced into Europe by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. Although de Champlain described the vegetable tuber as tasting of artichokes there real taste is similar to that of Chinese water chestnuts. Certainly not native to Jerusalem, the route of the name is thought to derive from the Italian for Sunflower, girasole to which the Jerusalem artichoke is related. Indeed the plant resembles a many stemmed sunflower complete with numerous small sunflower type blooms.
In France the Jerusalem artichoke was synonymous with rationing during the World War II when they were grown as a food staple all over the country.

BUYING.

Roots should firm, dense and free from spongy soft areas. Their shape, not dissimilar to ginger can be very nobly and one should try to buy the largest tubers available.

STORING.

Jerusalem artichokes will keep for several weeks in the salad chiller of the fridge but are better stored in a cool dry area such as a garden shed or garage covered with sand, much the same way as carrots are often stored.

PREPARING.

As potatoes.

COOKING.
A perfumed vegetable without being too scented which can be used to make a different recipe wherever potatoes are called for. Often thought of as peasant food and not fit to grace the tables of high society, the Jerusalem artichoke marries perfectly with the woody aromas of wild mushrooms and dried fruit and nuts. The flavour utterly sublime with lobster and crab can also be used with other seafood such as scallops.
They can be cooked as potatoes – baked roasted, sauté, boiled or steamed, and as with potatoes Jerusalem Artichokes will discolour when exposed to the air. Once peeled and cut maintain their colour by storing in acidulated water, using either a little vinegar or preferably lemon juice.


OTHER STUFF.

Because of the peculiarities in the digestion of Inulin, the form of carbohydrate found in Jerusalem Artichokes, they do have the side effect of causing flatulence.

RECIPES.

Cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup

Seared scallops with bacon, Jerusalem artichoke puree and crushed peas

Chicken and Jerusalem artichoke pie

Jerusalem artichoke and sage gratin

April’s showers have abated and the Ides of March are long since past, but the end of spring often arrives as a damp squib.
May, a month unable to decide if it belongs to spring or summer, varies from day to day. Driving rain, chill winds and yet on occasions such wonderfully clear blue skies that leave the sweltering days of full summer to shame.
Food is as problematic as the climate at this time of the year, and as one seasonal fare comes to an end so another falteringly begins.

The mainstays of winter fruit, apples and pears have had their day, stored since last autumn when they were plucked from orchards all over France. Their end is nie; even having been stored in a protective suffocating atmosphere cannot prevent their slow inevitable demise.


Oranges seem to have shrunk from within and the bittersweet juice of last summer is but a memory.
Strawberries arrive early in the month, far too early; and without enough sun are bland and tasteless as the monstrous greenhouses in which they are forced.
The first cherries appear in the second week of May, expensive 11€ a kilo ($3.80 - Lb, £3.40 - Lb), apparently cheaper than last year but in another two weeks the heat of flaming June will make them worth buying and the price will have fallen to something we can all afford.
Too early for peaches, nectarines and plums and the first melons come from Morocco.
We are graced with new potatoes with their thin skins and pale waxy flesh but broccoli and cauliflowers are coming to an end, and the ever-elusive asparagus never quite seems to appear.






A few stems of tasteless deathly white grass are on offer at the moment but the slender green variety which used to be grown all over France, including Brittany, are but dew on a summer morning, here one minute gone the next.

Rhubarb, a vegetable which the French are not really convinced about, can be found in a few markets and supermarkets but not the fine champagne variety so sought after by chefs all over the world.



Pré-salé lamb, fed exclusively on the salt marshes around Mont St Michel in Normandy is a meat not to be forgotten. The pastures covered by the sea twice a day leave a residue of salt in the grass on which the lambs feed. However, it is reluctant to make an appearance in Brittany and only a few butchers stock this wonderful product.



The Scallop season is over and the water is too cold for mussels worth eating.







The finest Breton Artichokes are still two or three weeks away from being available, leeks are turning woody, garlic is drying out and the onions seem to be sprouting into life forgetting they are on a market trolley and not in the soil.

One could be led to believe that May was a depressing time for the avid gastronome or gourmand…not so. This lack of availability is merely but a pause, a break in the natural cycle of the world, a lull between seasons. This respite has been lost in the UK and USA, with twenty-four hour a day three hundred and sixty five days a year commercialism, consumerism and the feeding of mammon.
Strawberries at Christmas, peaches in January and asparagus all year round, in fact every day of the year every single fruit and vegetable known to man can be bought in nearly all supermarkets throughout these two lands. No wonder people moan and complain that the fruit is not the same as the fruit of their youth; the fruit of their youth did not cross the globe, under ripe, overpriced and unready for anything apart from the bin. But these same people still buy food out of season, still complain and still finance the trade in tasteless food.
I would rather put up with the vagaries of May if it meant that I could taste those first strawberries, bite into the very first green asparagus stems or feast myself on a pot of plump fresh mussels when they are ready to be eaten.
May gives the body a little time to rest, a time to dwell on the wonderful fruits, vegetables and other foods from both the sea and the land, which will all be available in their time and season.
May gives us time to prepare, to dust of the cookery books and be ready for the onslaught of colours and taste, which will soon assail our senses
May is such a great month.
©Copywrite Malcolm Hamilton 2007©