Snack Time: Crispy Buttered Jerusalem Artichokes

You may ask, "What the hell are Jerusalem Artichokes???" Good question. I first found them in my CSA share last summer, and after a few weeks they found their way into my garbage because I had no idea what to do with them or even what they were. Turns out Jerusalem artichokes, aka sunchokes, aka those weird brown things are the roots of sunflowers! That's all fine and dandy and interesting, but after I finally figured out what they were I still had to find a way to make them delicious. After a few months of sad experiments and chucking these seemingly unappetizing tubers into the trash (sorry Farmer Zaid!), I decided to bust out the ultimate cooking weapon: butter. I should have thought of this sooner, because almost everything tastes delicious fried in butter. Lo and behold, they were phenomenal. Crispy and salty with a tiny bit of chewy bite to it, they're surprisingly addictive.

Buttered Sunchokes:

Wash and dry. Thinly slice the sunchokes, about 2 cm thick and on a diagonal if they're small. Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a non-stick pan, enough to coat but not drown the sliced sunchokes. Throw those bad boys in, put the heat on medium, add some salt and pepper, and cook until nice and crispy on both sides. It works better if you start removing the slices as they're done, but try not to eat them all as they come out of the pan.