Day Three Hundred and Thirty Five : Sunchoke Marriage Mondays

In honor of those of us who enjoy cooking with seasonal ingredients, in a farm to table manner, I thought I would choose a vegetable specifically in season now in the dead of January winter. How about the sunchoke?

Sunchokes or Jerusalem artichokes or earth apples are not actually related to artichokes, but actually are a sunflower style plant native to the Eastern United States. The tuber which somewhat resembles the look of ginger root is the portion that is edible and can be eaten raw or roasted or sauteed. Raw it has a nice refreshing crunch (think maybe akin to a water chestnut somewhat) and when cooked it begins to adopt a similar flavor profile to the potato.

I know you must be wondering why it is called a Jerusalem artichoke right? And actually the origin of the name is still unknown. There is no affiliation with Jerusalem we know since they originated in the US. We do know that when the French first tasted the tuber in the 1600s, they noted that it's cooked flavor profile was somewhat similar to the artichoke which is where the artichoke comes from...Most people in this day and age have taken to calling them sunchokes as I do.

The sunflowers known as Jerusalem artichokes

Image courtesy of http://www.gourmet.com/

And their tubers..

So what sort of cheeses could work with these tubers?


Contestant Number # 1: Tomme du Berger - A washed rind collaboration cheese -- a mixture of  raw goat's and sheep's milk cheese produced by two brothers. Crafted with the fall / winter milking herds in Corsica and then consequently washed and aged in the Provencal caves where the spring/summer herds reside. Stinky, gooey, gamey, and utterly fabulous, these washed rind babies strike the right cord of uncutous cheesy paste with the added oomph of the barnyardy, farmy washed rindedness. Will our washed rind stinker have what it takes to form a collaboration with the royal sunchokes?

Contestant Number # 2: Cypress Grove's Midnight Moon - The fantastic California goat's milk creamery's answer to aged goat gouda. This baby is aged in black wax for six months to a year allowing it to develop a nice depth of flavor with that fabulous crystallized graininess of an aged cheese. Nutty and butterscotchy yet with a nice goat's milk light tang. Will Midnight Moon take over our sunny sunchokes?

Contestant Number # 3: Bucheron - An aged French bloomy rind goat's milk log cheese with a tangy paste-y interior and a creamline surrounding the bloomy exterior. Not nearly as crumbly as young chevre style cheeses, this final contestant is semi-firm due to its aging. Chalky with a dense mouth feel, this is the sort of cheese that coats every nook and crevice of your mouth for all the right reasons. But will it coat our sunchokes in the right way?

Image courtesy of http://www.murrayscheese.com/

Stay tuned to find out tomorrow!