March 13 2011: A Mighty Wind

So my Amazon parcel turned up the other day, as the result of a birthday voucher. I don’t shop online very much, so when I do get a delivery, it’s like Xmas.

Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere and the Graveyard Book. Hilary Mantel, A Place Of Greater Safety (about the French Revolution). Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights. How I survived 3 years without this album I do not know.

Aaaaaand: Ministry of Food, by Jamie Oliver, fulfilling a life-long (ok, month-long) dream. Wheeee! Off to the kitchen for more adventures.

The challenge will now be to match a Jamie recipe to one of the random ingredients I get in my organic panier. It’s not the best time of year for interesting fruit and veg. There have been a few too many apples, oranges, onions and potatoes in recent baskets. But I am persevering, in the hopes of brighter days ahead. If I skip a week, who knows what I might miss out on?

But I could have skipped the other week, no problem. I opened the paper bag and saw three purple knobbly things lurking in the bottom. Oh no, Jerusalem artichokes – what do I do?

Jerusalem artichokes have a certain underground status here – literally, as they were one of the only things that Parisians could grow in their basements to eat in the long years of the German Occupation during World War II. But they have a nasty side-effect, affecting approximately 50% of the population: they induce terribly powerful wind.

Perhaps due to one or both of these factors, there is an entire generation of Parisians who will not eat them, and so they fell out of favour. Which is a pity, as they have a delicate nutty taste, and go well with a lot of things. But the only two times I’ve eaten them, one was at an expensive restaurant, and the other was at the house of someone who really knows what she’s doing.

So how to cook them? I check the newsletter for this week, which usually provides helpful recipes. Raw Jerusalem artichoke with citrus and mint? Do they know what temperature it is outside? This was before my new food bible arrived - so I google Jerusalem artichoke recipes, and Gordon Ramsey comes up trumps. Apparently the thing to do is simmer them in milk for 20 minutes, drain off the milk, and then puree the results, adding back enough of the milk to achieve a smooth puree. Delicious – but I suppose anything tastes good if you add enough butter, milk and cream.

But what of the after-effects, I hear you cry? Well let’s just say that sleeping alone has it’s advantages

It’s very rare that I get the same vegetable on different weeks – but it’s late winter, so there is not much choice out there. I pick up my next panier tomorrow night.

Be afraid, be very afraid.