NEW ROOT ON THE BLOCK

 

These tubers, known as Jerusalem artichokes, are from a type of sunflower, . 

Ben dug up the garden bed next to the house, uprooting the invasive “sunflowers” that grow around the clementine tree and crowd out the strawberry plants. He dumped a heap of the roots on the kitchen cabinet. “Are these good for anything?”

Edible tubers can be cooked like potatoes.

     Yes. The sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus) grows from an edible tuber known culinarily as Jerusalem artichoke, sunchoke or topinambour.  My specimens were pretty small, but worth experimenting with.

     The tuber does indeed taste a little like artichoke, but it has nothing to do with Jerusalem (in fact, it is native to North America). 

     The name may be a phonetic scrambling of the word “girasol,” meaning “sunflower.” “Sunchoke” is the market name where the tuber is grown as a food crop. Topinambour is the French name (don’t ask) and the name that Spanish chefs use for the vegetable. 

     Jerusalem artichokes actually taste like a cross between globe artichokes and potatoes. They can be cooked in any way suitable for potatoes, but are also good raw (which potatoes are not). I tried them raw, roasted, mashed and stir-fried.  

Peeled, the tubers are white.

To prepare the Jerusalem artichokes, soak them in water for 15 minutes, then scrub them well to remove all the earth that clings to them.

Peeling small tubers is tedious. The skin is edible, but it gets leathery with roasting. Steaming is the best way to cook the tubers if they are to be turned into puree. 

Slice to use raw or stir-fried.

Crisp and crunchy, good raw in salad. 

With stir-fried vegetables and rice.

Root vegetable extravaganza!

Sheet pan of root vegetables, ready to roast. On the left are carrots and potatoes; center, Jerusalem artichokes (a few unpeeled) with shallots; right, parsnips at the top, rutabaga (Swede turnip) below. The vegetables are tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and sprigs of thyme, roasted at 400ºF for 45 minutes. 

Roasted root vegetables, including Jerusalem artichokes, served alongside salmon cake and cole slaw. The roasted veggies are also good with roasted salmon, turkey, chicken, pork.

By the way, the flower is a bright spot in the September-October garden. The tubers will continue to spread, however. So even though we dug these up, a few missed ones will begin to sprout next year. 

More recipes for root vegetables:

Roasted Root Vegetables with Quince.

Rutabaga and Potato Mash.

Vegetable Chips and Dip.

Sweet and Sour Carrots.

Millet and Carrot Pilaf.

EATING AT KILÓMETRO CERO

A house guest handed me a sack full of walnuts. What a nice gift, just in time for holidays when I always buy a bag of walnuts. In my Spanish market, they are always “California Walnuts.” But these, said Mike, were grown and picked at a friend’s finca in Spain. Kilómetro cero! 

Walnuts grown in Spain, with a very low carbon footprint.

“Kilómetro Cero” is the Spanish manifestation of the locavore movement. The idea is to save the planet through a sustainable culinary experience—food grown and consumed within a 100-kilometer radius. (Although the walnuts came from near Valencia—more than 100 kilómetros from where I live—they were delivered by sailing vessel to a port close to me, thus reducing their carbon footprint.) 

Practitioners aim to support local farmers and small producers, minimize the environmental impact of transportation, emphasize seasonal foods, promote biodiversity and prevent the loss of ecosystems through the preservation of heirloom species, autochthonous livestock breeds, local styles of cheese making. Locally produced food is also likely to be fresher and tastier than that shipped long distances. 

Many of the precepts of Kilómetro Cero have been included in From Farm to Fork, a cornerstone of the European Green Deal, a series of policy initiatives proposed by the European Commission to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. 

From Farm to Fork, presented in May of this year, aims to increase the sustainability of food systems through a strategy to assure affordable and sustainable food, tackle climate change, protect the environment, preserve biodiversity and increase organic farming (including acquaculture). 

Clementines just steps from my kitchen. They are small mandarin oranges, similar to tangerines.

 

Like jewels, ruby-red pomengranate kernels enliven any salad. These fruit are from a friend's garden.

In my kitchen at kilómetro cero, I´m making salad. From a tree just steps from the kitchen, I picked clementines. I opened a pomegranate grown on a nearby friend’s property. I sliced avocados from Málaga plantations (my own tree has only two fruit). Dressed with my own extra virgin olive oil and a smidge of Sherry vinegar (ok, Jerez de la Frontera, provenance of Sherry, is 200 km. from my kitchen), my salad was finished with chopped walnuts, grown in Spain.  

A gorgeous salad for a holiday table, made with local ingredients. 

For the salad dressing, I've got fruity, fresh extra virgin olive oil. I picked the olives myself and took them to the mill.

Chopped walnuts add crunch. Almonds would be good too (I've got almond trees on the edge of my garden.)

Salad with Clementines, Avocados and Walnuts

Ensalada con Clementinas, Agucates y Nueces

Clementines are small mandarin oranges, similar to tangerines. 

I’ve used PX vinegar, made with Pedro Ximenez Sherry. It is slightly sweet, very mellow. Regular Sherry vinegar with a teaspoon of (local) honey is a reasonable substitute. 

Serves 4.

4-5 clementines or other tangerines

2 avocados

Lemon juice

1 pomegranate

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Salad greens

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

2 ½ tablespoons PX vinegar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon clementine juice

Peel the clementines and slice them crosswise. Discard any seeds. Slice the avocados and sprinkle them with a little lemon juice. Split open the pomegranate and remove seeds, discarding membrane. Place the seeds in a bowl.

Spread salad greens on a platter or on individual salad plates. Arrange slices of clementines and avocados on the greens. Spoon pomegranate seeds over the fruits. Sprinkle with walnuts.

For the dressing, combine in a small bowl the mustard, shallot and vinegar. Stir until mustard is smooth. Whisk in the oil, salt, pepper and juice.

Immediately before serving, spoon the dressing over the salad.

More about the European Union's Farm to Fork initiative:

From Farm to Fork--2030 Targets.

More colorful salads for fall and winter:

Waldorf Salad with Beets.

Pumpkin Taboulleh Salad.

Pear, Fennel, Walnut Salad.

Sweet Potato, Fennel and Clementine Salad.

More recipes with walnuts:

Turkey Breast Roulade with Spinach-Walnut Stuffing.

Walnut Torte.

Squab Stuffed with Apricots and Walnuts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

 I went out to dinner on my birthday! What a thrill. I haven’t eaten out since before the coronavirus lockdown. We went to one of my favorite restaurants on the Costa del Sol, Los Marinos José in Fuengirola (Málaga), where the seafood is superb. 

Los Marinos has its own fishing boat and local catch was displayed—Fuengirola octopus, shrimp and small red mullet—as well as big fish from the not-too-distant Atlantic coast, such as pargo from Tarifa. With such a fabulous array of fish and shellfish, how would I ever decide?

What a fabulous display of fresh seafood! On the far left are carabineros, giant red shrimp, and, on the far right, cigalas, sea crayfish. At the back is is 4-kilo black mero (grouper). Four of us ate half of it. (Photo by Ben Searl.)

Tempting as they were, we passed over the deep red carabineros (king prawns) and cigalas (sea crayfish) as starter. We ordered a round of conchas finas, large Venus-shell clams with glossy, mahogony-colored shells. Opened raw, they are served on the half-shell. Slightly chewy with a clean, sea flavor, conchas once were my favorite tapas treat on trips to Málaga. 

For our main course we happily agreed to share half of a 4-kilo black grouper (mero). It provided us with four thick grilled fillets plus pieces of the head, crisply fried. The fillets were cooked to perfection on the plancha. By perfection, I mean moist and flaky, not undercooked, not overcooked. Perfect. What a skill to get it so right. At first taste, I thought I wanted salt, maybe lemon. But, that was out of habit. It needed nothing. No salt, no sauce. Divine.

I'm delighted with grilled grouper and a fresh Albariño white wine. In the foreground are meaty chunks of the fish head and spine that have been crisply fried.  Using hands, eat it right off the bones. (Photo by Ben Searl.)

The waiter directed us to eat the fried pieces “with the hands, like chicken wings.” Crunchy and crusty on the outside, they yielded hunks of moist flesh tucked between bones and fins. (Even an eyeball, which my 16-year-old grandson ate. I´ll spare you the video.) 

A meme on Spanish social networks (I think it comes from an ad) goes like this: “Queridos ingleses: Aceptamos calcetines con sandalias si nos enseñáis a cenar a las ocho.” “Dear English folks: we’ll accept you wearing socks with sandals if only you’ll show us how to have dinner at 8:00.” In Spain, dinner, in normal times, is at 9, 10 or 11 pm. Our dinner reservations were for 8 pm and we were home by 10:30. Such is the culture in the days of coronavirus restrictions (new curfews in Andalusia require restaurants and bars to close by 11 pm.) I'm fine with eating early and delighted to dine again in a restaurant.

And, my birthday wishes came true! The very next day the U.S. presidential elections were called for the Biden-Harris ticket.

Los Marinos José Restaurante

Paseo Marítimo Rey de España, 161

Carvajal- Fuengirola, Málaga

(34) 952 66 10 12

http://www.losmarinosjose.com/

I had another terrific birthday gift--a team to help me pick the olives. Thanks to Ben, Leo and Mike! I came home from the mill with 22 liters of extra virgin olive oil.

Ben cuts down high branches for me to pick. Cat patrols the grounds.

My grandson, Leo, whacks olives from the tree onto a tarp.

Visitor, Capitan Mike, rakes olives from the branches.

Olives on their way to the press.  More about how virgin olive oil is produced here.

At the mill: I've got my 22 liters of fresh olive oil!