Roasted Winter Vegetables

Westside Dinner Club Episode 1: Roasted Winter Veggies

In fall some of my friends had a great idea: A weekly dinner club! Whitney has described it as the anti-potluck. One person cooks a meal each week for everyone else. They're always really good; I like to call them dinners of standards. At this point we've got about six participating households, and I've hosted three times, but somehow in the craziness of the last two quarters I haven't posted any of the dinners that I've made! These first three back-posts will be a dinner club catch-up.

The first time I hosted (in mid-November) I made squash soup and roasted winter vegetables. The soup was a lot waterier than I wanted it to be, so I'm editing it out of history (except for the part where I just told you about it). The vegetables, on the other hand, were a beautiful showcase of the roots that serve as my seasonal local staples through winter: turnips, potatoes, parsnips, and jerusalem artichokes.

Left to right: Turnip, potato, parsnip, jerusalem artichoke.

Jerusalem artichokes were first introduced to me in a dish similar to this about a year ago by Lee at a Free Herbal Clinic winter workshop. I couldn't believe how yummy they were, packing an earthy artichoke-like flavor and much smoother mouth texture than most starchy roots (since they in fact don't have as much starch as most commercially available roots).

Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sunchokes, are a species of sunflower.

Raw, they are nutty, crunchy, and crisp, and make a great snack with almond butter. Though I imagine that their bulbous grey bodies play a large part in why I've never seen them at a large grocery, I personally am pretty charmed by the knobby little characters.

This recipe was the first I ever used to make jerusalem artichokes and it remains one of my favorites for its humble comfort but distinct flavors.

from http://morselsandmusings.blogspot.com/2008/02/baked-jerusalem-artichokes.html

285 ml double cream or créme fraîche
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 good handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
3 handfuls of grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 kg Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and sliced as thick as a pencil
2 good handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs (if you want to go from mmm to OMG, use fresh torn bread pieces, particularly caraway rye)
Olive oil

1. Preheat your oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas7.
2. In a bowl mix your cream, lemon juice, garlic half the thyme and most of the Parmesan, and season well to taste.
3. Throw in the sliced Jerusalem artichokes. Mix well and place everything in an ovenproof baking dish.
4. Mix the breadcrumbs with the rest of the thyme and Parmesan and some salt and pepper.
5. Sprinkle all the flavoured breadcrumbs over the artichokes and drizzle with a little olive oil.
6. Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes until the artichokes are tender and the breadcrumbs golden.