30. Savory Rhubarb: Raw rhubarb-sunchoke salsa crude

 

Rhubarb grows well in the Pacific Northwest. Once established it can be a good food security crop. For this purpose, finding savory uses for rhubarb is a bonus. I have made Thai red coconut curry using rhubarb. I have tasted an Indian friend's sour and spicy rhubarb chutney. Another friend adds raw rhubarb to cole slaw. Here, I made a salsa crude for my black bean tacos with a side of avocado cream.

Rhubarb-Sunchoke Salsa Crude
1 stalk of rhubarb, minced finely
1/4 cup of pickled chopped Jerusalem artichokes
3 radishes, sliced and quartered
3 mini yellow carrots chopped
1/4 white onion diced
squeeze of lime juice and or lemon juice, to taste
diced fresh hot chiles, or sauce  to taste
cilantro leaves
drizzle of avocado or olive oil, Salt & Pepper
Toss all ingredients and spread on top of the tacos
See entry #15 for the pickled sun choke recipe it's stellar

#29 Raw Sunchoke Seaweed Salad - Vegan

Proportions and details are not worked out in this recipe, but improvisation is key in making salads and using what greens and veggies you have on hand. Vary it up and let us know how it goes.

Seaweed salad from the prepared foods area of a local asian market with the refreshing bit of crisp cucumber and daikon radish, drizzled in a toasted sesame oil based dressing and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. Shown here assembled with grilled tofu. The first time I made this I tossed everything together. Choose your options.

• Scrub well or peel sunchoke and slice in bite size pieces
• Slice cucumber
• Finely grate daikon radish
• Mix toasted sesame oil with rice vinegar, sweet rice wine or honey, and shoyu or soy sauce 
• Bed of baby greens or spinach
• Black sesame seeds
• Tofu - marinaded ahead in shoyu, rice vinegar and sesame oil
• Grill tofu and slice, serve on the side.

Sunchoke Vegetable Broth for French Onion Soup

The sunflower tuber helped give this vegetable broth a rich deep flavor that made a hearty French Onion Soup without meat.

Pan 1: onions:
First start the onions sautéing for the soup. Add 1/2 of a stick of butter to pan to melt, (or sunflower oil), on medium heat, add 5 or 6 thinly sliced yellow onions, or a combination of yellow and red. Salt & pepper generously. Add one bay leaf,  1/4 c. red wine and 1 tsp sugar. Sautée for 40-50 minutes until carmelized. Continue to add butter or oil as needed. Put aside until ready to serve, then reheat and add 1/2 c white wine and 1/2 brandy or cognac.

Pan 2: Vegetables
sautéed the following vegetables in butter or sunflower oil:
sunchokes, parsnips, celery root, carrot, fennel, apple, onion, garlic
sautéed on medium a few minutes
add 1 cup broth and cook until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes longer
salt & pepper

Pan 3: Broth
Melt 1 T butter or 1T of sunflower oil in another pan
add:
2 T nutritional yeast
1 tsp white miso
1 tsp brown barely miso
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tsp of a smokey soy sauce
1 T mushroom soup base (undiluted with water)
mix slurry with 1 box of vegetable broth
add some celery, some onion  and boil mixture for 5 minutes
salt & pepper

Add sauteed vegetables from pan 2 to broth in pan 3 and cook 5-10 minutes longer. Remove vegetables. (can be reused in another soup or stew)

Broil French bread slices with Gruyere cheese (or vegan cheese) and melt part-way if you want to return compiled soup to the over.

Assemble:
onions, broth, place grilled French bread on top, if you like, you can broil until cheese is super melted.

Sunchoke Crop Check

Checking out the sun chokes, which will wait in the ground until February when harvested for the Rainier Valley Food Bank. They can be harvested any time before they start to grow again in the spring. Sauteeing them with onions in butter until lightly brown is delicious. The next day left overs went into the spinach-pesto pasta dish and provided a velvety sweet contrast to the pesto 

Roasted Parsnip-Sunchoke Soup

#28 Smokey Sunchoke Mac & Cheese

The only thing to say is that this is an excuse for Mac & Cheese made a little bit less decadent with a vegetable presence, and yet tasting as good as it comes. 

First there was a béchamel sauce with flour, butter and plenty of milk. Then grated sharp cheddar cheese and smoky cheddar cheese were added to the sauce with lots of stirring. Thickened further with grated parmesan cheese. Combine with pasta and sunchokes that have been boiled until soft. Salt and pepper.  Broil the Mac & Cheese in individual oven proof dishes until bubbly and a little brown. Top with a dash of Spanish smoked paprika or sirachi.

LIP SMACKING GOOD

Sunchoke food security demonstration and art project at Bradner Gardens

Sunchokes are BIG this year

The fence art needs a refresh

     

Sunchoke Harvest at Bradner Gardens

Rain or shine!
What: Sunchoke Harvest, sculpture making, replanting for next year
Why: Food for the Rainier Valley Food Bank and some to take home
Where: Bradner Gardens Park, 29th Avenue S. & S. Grand St.
When: Sunday February 26th, Noon
Treats and test tasting
It's time to Harvest our over-wintered 2016 Jerusalem Artichokes, aka sunchokes for the Rainier