Jerusalem Artichoke Gratin / Urchin Kefir Cream

Ingredients

Gratin

750g Jerusalem artichoke (if out of season you can use potato instead)

3 tablespoons Shimiya Bonito Soup (available at Woolworths)

400g thickened cream

Before you start soak the artichokes in warm water to soften any dirt and make cleaning them easier. After 10-15 minutes go through and remove any dirt from the artichokes with a sponge and rinse again. At this point preheat the oven to 160 degrees. At home I’ll make a tradition Japanese Dashi using Kombu (seaweed) and dried Bonito but for home the instant dashi powder from the supermarket works fine.

To start the dashi cream dissolve 3 tablespoons of instant bonito soup in 400ml of water and add the cream, reduce this by half while you slice the artichokes.

Thinly slice the artichokes (I like to use a mandolin for this) once they are sliced add them to a pot with the dashi cream and cook on a low to medium heat stirring regularly to heat and coat the slices. Cook the artichoke until the slices loose most of their bite and the cream is reduced to coat.

At this point press them into a heavy frying pan or a roasting pan and bake in the oven until the artichoke gratin has no resistance. To finish you can caramelise the top under the grill and keep warm until ready to serve.

Urchin Kefir Cream

Tongues from 3 live sea urchins (50g tongues)

250g natural organic milk kefir

1 Lemon

This can be made a couple of hours prior and kept in the fridge. With a stick blender or a blender working quickly to keep everything nice and cold. Take the cleaned raw tongues and blend them into kefir season with salt, a little lemon zest and lemon juice to taste. Store in a clean container in the fridge until needed.

Garnish

Coastal Greens (substitute with any herb you may have in the garden)

Garlic Olive Oil

To Garnish

Serve the Jerusalem artichoke gratin and sauce with the Urchin kefir cream, cover with your greens or herbs and hit it all with a good drizzle of garlic olive oil.