The tuber we’ve come to call the Jerusalem Artichoke may be the
perfect Thanksgiving food stuff, (its more poetic name, of course, is
sunchoke), because the gnarly little, root-like guy was a native of
North America long before any pale face chefs showed up. And when
colonial explorers brought sunchokes back to Europe they were a hit.
In fact the French wouldn’t deign to eat potatoes, but they loved
sunchokes.
They bear no relation to the real artichoke but the resemblance in
taste in rad. The bulbs have everything: a hint of dirt, a mealy,
mushy texture akin to yucca and that undeniable meat yartichoke
flavor. November is also the tale end of the sunchoke season, so don’t
wait ’till X-mas.
Here we mixed them half and half with Yukon taters for something close
to mashed potatoes, but whipped to a gooey cream with tumeric-infused
oil.
Sunchoke Mash
10 sunchokes, peeled (about 1 pound)
3 Yukon potatoes, peeled
2 Tbs. sea salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs. red chili flakes
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs. tumeric
1/4 cup soy milk, unflavored
1. Bring 2 large pots to boil and salt the water.
2. In a pan, add the oil and saute the chili flakes, garlic and
tumeric over high heat. After a couple minutes bring it down to a
simmer and let sit.
3. Add potatoes to one and the sunchokes to the other as they cook at
different speeds. Let boil for 10-12 minutes and test sunchokes with a
for–it should slide right through. Remove, drain and set aside. Give
thge potatoes a couple extra minutes and drain, remove, set aside.
4. In a large blender or food processor blend the potatoes, sunchokes,
oil mixture and soy milk. Poke it with a spoon and use the highest
setting to achieve a thorough whipping, not just a mash texture.
5. Serve like ice cream as a side dish.
Beverage: New Belgium’s 2 Degrees Below
Soundtrack: Depeche Mode’s Violator

In order to properly construct this dish of leftovers we drove the three hours northwest to Ojai, deep into the Los Padres National Forest. We set up camp 6,000 miles up at a place called Pine Mountain and went to sleep in below freezing weather. Then, we woke up and embarked on a 13-mile hike to the summit.
The following recipe for seitan and gravy sandwiches, accompanied here by a simple sprouted salad, was reason enough to go camping. Everything you see was prepared on a Butane stove the size of your fist, in paper thin pots of dubious quality. File this under “Hobo Knives.” Continue reading →

Its getting cold, well, cold for Los Angeles. And this week all we could think about was seared tofu drenched in a thick sauce. Traditionally, Steak Diane is made with butter, Wooster sauce and…beef. For this recipe, we subbed Wooster for a maple mustard balsamic reduction with a hefty helping of fresh tarragon at the end. Grab your scarves. Continue reading →

As veggie cooks, we’ve struggled for years with how to best fry up our friend the bean curd without needing our other friend the chicken egg. An egg wash instantly lends a stickiness needed to fully coat the tofu with flour. Without it, attaining a crispy tofu skin is all but impossible. Until now. Continue reading →