Neither from Israel nor Artichokes

Jerusalem Artichokes, or sunchokes as they are sometimes less confusingly called, look like knobby potatoes, or perhaps tumor ridden turnips. Choose your imagery. Surprisingly, or un-surprisingly if you've been watching me cook with the weird veggies all year, these knobby ugly things, like most root vegetables, seem to have only 2 or 3 successful and suggested methods of preparation. You can roast them. You can boil and mash them. You can make them into chips or fries, or pancakes. Boring Boring Boring. Tubers are Boring. There isn't much I can say about that. However, the Sunchoke does have one unique trick that the other tubers do not. They take very well to being stir fried. Almost like a water-chestnut but more bendy. And although I find stir fry's to be as un-original a way to get rid of veg as making a salad, I realize I had not yet created one for you on this blog. Also, I found a recipe with some pretty interesting techniques. So who am I to resist. Let's get stir-crazy.

Stir-Fry is often one of those dinners that people say are "quick and easy". Now, unless they are suggesting you should buy pre-packaged stir fry mixes from the frozen aisle, which although a perfectly acceptable "quick and easy" meal, stir fry is NOT quick, easy... maybe, but not quick. Many stir fry's have an insane number of ingredients all of which need prepping AHEAD of the heat. This recipe took about 30 minutes to prep, granted about 5-6 minutes to cook, but 30 minutes of prep is not "quick"... to me quick is a peanut butter sandwich... and yes I survived on those for months at a time in college or Law School, not because I was incapable of cooking or didn't have enough money for "real food"... just because it took literally 5 minutes and was delicious.  Anyway, side rant over.

First step to this stir fry is to make the roasted lime basil peanuts, which was the primary reason for choosing this recipe over others. I combined lime zest, a ton of fresh basil, salt, oil and peanuts in a bowl and spread them out over a lined sheet pan (for easy clean up). And then into the oven to roast. The recipe made about 3/4 of a cup of these peanuts. Which was more than enough. I have extras frozen in the fridge for other future applications.

While the peanuts are roasting The Husband and I minced and chopped and grated shallots, garlic, and ginger. All that went into a small prep bowl on stand by, along with the red pepper. Into a second prep bowl went the lime juice, soy sauce, and some sesame oil, the recipe called for peanut oil but I never miss an opportunity to substitute for something more flavorful.

By the time that was all prepped the peanuts had been pulled from the oven and cooled. I then gave them a rough  chop. thinking back on it this would have been a good opportunity to grab a hammer and just smash rather than chop, but hind sight is 20/20. It is not easy rough chopping peanuts with a knife. they kind of go everywhere. It wasn't a total loss, while I had my knife out I rough chopped more basil.

Final steps are to prep the big veggies. For the string beans I popped off each of the ends and  broke them in half. No need to get specific... just snap away, it's really the fastest method. I then placed them in a microwave safe bowl lined with a wet paper towel, and covered them with another wet paper towel. 2 minutes and 30 seconds on high later, and they come out rather nicely steamed.

Then after The Husband cleaned the very dirty little bastards, I pulled out the mandolin and sliced the Sunchokes into beautiful thin slices. Now, by this time in my blog I've consistently resorted to the use of my mandolin and some of you out there might really be wondering if it's worth it. Especially after I ended up in the emergency room. If you have Excellent knife skills you absolutely do  not need a mandolin and I bow to your awesome skills. If you have average knife skills, meaning you can produce, albeit slowly, an even and consistent slice, you can probably do with out one, just be aware that your slices are likely to be thicker than recommended. If your knife skills suck, or if you just want things to go faster, get a mandolin (I, and CooksIllustrated, recommend the Oxo good grips V blade mandolin slicer), get a cut safe glove, and marvel in how much faster and consistent your slices will be.

Ok so now that everything is prepped, we can actually start cooking. This goes rather quickly so make sure whatever you are serving your stir fry over (rice or noodles are traditional) is already prepared. I put about a tablespoon of sesame oil into a nonstick pan over high heat and let it get nice and hot. The recipe I was using specifically told me not to use an aluminum or cast iron pan for this dish as the sunchokes will discolor, I don't know if that is true but I thought I would let you know. Once the oil is hot add the Ginger/garlic etc mixture and cook off for 30 seconds. Then toss in the sunchokes and continue stirring and cooking until they start to brown, about 3-5 minutes. It's important to stir constantly with a stir fry since you are working with such high heat.  At this point, you can cut the heat and toss in your final ingredients, the sauce, the basil and the green beans. The carry over heat should be sufficient to warm everything through and thicken up the sauce, be prepared for steam by the way, that pan is screaming hot.

Serve over rice and top with the peanuts for the end result:

The Verdict:
Flavor wise this dish was a perfect stirfry although maybe a little bit too spicy. That may be a result of The Husband and I using the ginger from The Box which as a result is super fresh and therefor super hot. but the dish was filling, spicy, not too sweet and with a pleasant crunch so you couldnt' really complain. The Husband ate his bowl full and I would absolutely make it again. As a side note though the Sunchokes don't really have a flavor per-say. It's kind of just a textural element, and with the crisp in the green Beans and the crunch of the peanuts, totally unnecessary. I likely would substitute it out for maybe some chicken or pan seared tofu. The dish was missing that protein element that is expected in a stir fry. We will have to see.

The Recipe:
The recipe can be found all over the internet but the initial version of it is likely HERE at Buzzfeed.com by Rebekah Peppler. NOTE: this recipe says it makes 2 servings. we got about 3 out of it.

• ¾ cup unsalted shelled peanuts
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• 6 basil leaves, finely chopped
• ½ lime, zested
• ¼ teaspoon flaky sea salt
• Rice or Noodles made to the package instructions
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame, divided
• ¾ cup water
• ½ pound green beans, cut into 2-inch pieces 
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger (grated on a microplane)
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 medium shallots or 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 5 to 6 medium sunchokes, scrubbed and very thinly sliced
• 8 to 10 basil leaves, torn
• Kosher salt, to taste

1. Get your rice or noodles cooked.
2. Make the basil-lime peanuts: Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a medium bowl toss the peanuts,sesame oil, basil and lime zest to combine. Spread the peanuts onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with the sea salt. Transfer to the oven and roast until the peanuts are golden and fragrant, 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely. Roughly chop the peanuts, set aside.
3. In a small bowl add the lime juice, soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon of the Sesame oil, set aside 
4. Steam green beans  until crisp but tender using a desired method set aside.
5. Combine ginger, garlic, shallots and red pepper flakes into a small bowl, set aside.
6. Wash and Slice the sunchokes, set aside.
7. In your favorite stir fry pan heat over medium to high heat a tablespoon of the sesame oil. Once the pan is hot, drop in the ginger mixture, stir-fry for 20 to 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Add the sunchokes and cook, stirring frequently, until they start to brown, 3 to 5 minutes.Cut the heat and add the cooked green beans, the lime-soy mixture and the basil, and toss to coat. Season with salt if needed. 
8. To serve, spoon some of the rice into two serving bowls and top with the vegetables. Sprinkle with the basil-lime peanuts and serve.