Tonight I interviewed Chef Debbie Gold from The American restuarant in Kansas City, MO. I had a fabulous meal include a lamb dish that unseated Fogo de Chao’s lamb as the best lamb dish I had ever had. But that’s another blog post.

Today, we’re talking about

Sunchokes

While talking Chef Gold and touring her immaculate kitchen, she showed me some really beautiful sunchokes in her walk-in and she gave me a brief tutorial about them. Of course, later, when given the chance, Ihad to order the LaBelle duck which rested on a pillowy bed of sunchoke puree.

I thought I’d share what she told me with all of you:

Sunchoke Puree

Okay, so I didn’t get a recipe. This is more of a technique, but from what she told me, you will need:

• Sunchokes, peeled
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• Salt

The technique appears very easy. Put the sunchokes in a pan and fill it with enough cold water to cover the sunchokes plus an extra inch and a healthy pinch of salt.

“Poach” the sunchokes by bringing the water to boil and then immediately dropping the heat to between medium-low and medium and cover. (You’ll notice this pretty much what we do with braising.) The idea is that bubbles will form under the water, but break before they get to the surface. This keeps the water hot enough to gently cook the sunchokes.

Once the sunchokes are very soft (chef’s words), put them in a food processor (she’s probably cool and uses a chinoise but we’ll use a food processor) with some heavy cream and another good pinch of salt. Start with a quarter cup of heavy cream, a pat of butter, and add more slowly to make the sunchokes very creamy.

Serve as a bed for a nice steak or by themselves with a bit more butter and some chives and enjoy!

Mad props to foodistablog for the pic!