A warm salad of Jerusalem artichokes and bacon with a mustard dressing

 

This week’s recipe is inspired by one in Nigel Slater’s recent book Tender. I love all of  Nigel’s books and this latest one  lies open on our kitchen table on a nearly permanent basis as I’m constantly flicking  through it. The photos, like his writing, are amazing. Having said  that, I rarely follow his recipes to the letter. The thing about Nigel is that he’s never shy with the pork or dairy. If butter is called for it’s at least 3 times what you’d put yourself and that’s before you add the cream… Tastes amazing but mama mia I’m not ready to give up my jeans (or have a heart attack) just yet.

With this recipe Nigel’s version had twice the bacon I’ve used and what I used was loads believe me. He suggests serving this dish with cold roast beef or chicken but I don’t tend to have that kind of thing lying around and it seemed like too much meat to me. Instead I boiled up some amazing  Charlotte spuds (soooo velvety), roughly chopped them, then added a dollop of creme fraiche and a scattering of those teeny capers.They were great together, perfect fare for a truly foul November eve……

A warm salad of Jerusalem Artichokes

You’ll need:

500gr Jerusalem Artichokes

100gr Streaky Bacon

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon walnut oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons whole grain mustard

A pinch of crushed Maldon salt

A large handful flatleaf Parsley roughly chopped

Scrub the artichokes and steam for about 8 minutes under tender but firm (it’s very easy to overdo them so start checking after 6 minutes). In the meantime, roughly chop the bacon and put in a pan to fry with a drop of olive oil. You want it slightly crispy so turn up the heat at the end if you need to. While all this is going on, whisk the oils, lemon juice, salt  and mustard together to make the dressing and set aside. When the artichokes are ready let the them cool slightly then roughly chop  into bitesize pieces. When the bacon is done, take it off the pan but try and leave as much oil behind as possible as this is for frying the artichokes. Reheat the pan and drop in the artichoke pieces and fry until golden. This will take about 3 0r 4 minutes.

To put the salad together, toss the artichokes and bacon with the dressing then add the parsley. Serve with the spuds as I did or with some crusty bread.

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