Sunchokes are delicious

The Goods:

Oven Roasted Sunchokes

1 dozen sunchokes (aka: Jerusalem artichokes)

1 garlic clove

1 small (~1") piece of fresh ginger

2 tbsp fresh fennel

olive oil

Kale/Mushrooms

1 bunch lacinto kale

1 large portabella mushroom cap

1 large shallot

1/2 cup vegetable stock

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Wash, dry, and slice the sunchokes into quarters. Trim the skin and finely mince the ginger. Repeat for the garlic. Mince the fresh fennel. Drizzle some olive oil on a pyrex baking dish. Add the sunchokes, ginger, garlic, and fennel to the baking dish. Season with kosher salt and ground black pepper. Drizzle some more olive oil over the sunchokes. Mix the contents of the dish by hand. Bake the sunchokes at 425 for half an hour.

Place about a tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy sauté pan and set on medium-high heat. Wash and dry the mushroom cap. Slice the mushroom into 1 cm thick slices. Place the slices in the sauté pan. Let the slices cook for about 2 minutes for side on medium-high heat without disturbing*. Remove the skin from the shallot. Slice in half, then slice each half into thin slices. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the shallots. Season with kosher salt and ground black pepper. At this point, another spritz of olive oil may be required, because the large mushroom pieces act like oil sponges in the pan. Cook until the shallots are translucent. Slice the kale bunch at roughly 3" intervals. Discard the stems at the base of the bunch. When the shallots are translucent, add the kale to the pan. Turn the heat up to medium and add the stock. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the kale has just wilted.

Serve with the mushrooms and kale over Israeli couscous, with the oven roasted sunchokes on the side.

*I probably should have used clarified butter here, but I'm all out of it. In theory, searing with olive oil is verboten because olive oil has such a low smoke point. Of course, I wasn't searing with some serious, balls-to-the-wall heat in this case and the oil did not actually smoke, but it's something to keep in mind.