Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

The flowers and stems on the Jeresalem artichokes have now died off, which means the crazy potato-like/ artichoke like vegetable is ready to pick and eat.

They look like this after you pull them out of the ground and you just have to scrub the skin to clean them.

We cooked up this lovely Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Horseradish Quenelles. It's from a cookbook of ours called Saturday and Sundays which is full of beautiful recipes and pretentious ways to enjoy them (e.g. light supper after the opera, slow brunch whilst sailing). It was suggested you might enjoy this soup as a supper with a game of backgammon! But beware the impact of a huge amount of jerusalem artichokes on your belly!

The quenelles are a bit involved, but are a nice addition to the soup.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Horseradish Quenelles:

For the quenelles:
2 egg yolks
1 tbs of melted butter 
1/4 cup creamed cottage cheese
1 tbs horseradish sauce
1/4 cup fresh white breadcrumbs
finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup chopped chives

For the soup:
500g Jerusalem artichokes scrubbed
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp salt
300mL cream
1 tbs butter
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic
Parsley to garnish

Slice the artichokes thickly and add to a saucepan with the lemon juice, salt and enough cold water just to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer until tender (15-20 minutes). Drain and cool.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan- add the tomato and garlic and cook gently until the tomato has broken up. Puree with the artichokes and cream. Add extra boiling water if the texture is too thick.


To make the quenelles, whisk the egg yolks with melted butter until frothy; stir in remaining ingredients. 
Heat 5cm water until simmering in a deep frypan. Shape quenelle mixture using 2 tablespoons and gently lower into the water. Cook for about 10 minutes.

Serve soup with cooked quenelles and garnish with parsley.