BEAR'S SUNCHOKE COLCANNON

This is my version of a sunchoke augratin recipe I saw on the web.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Dice a large onion and saute it in butter until it is soft or lightly carmelized (taster's choice).
3. Clean about 3 lbs of sunchokes.  We store ours in sand, so we need to wash them well.  Boil them in water around 10 minutes, until they are semi-soft.  Drain the sunchokes, and run cold water over them so you can handle them faster.
   
4. While the sunchokes are boiling, chop 2 cups of kale (see how to chop kale in Side Salads).
5. Lightly oil or butter a 9" x 13" baking pan.
   
6. Slice the sunchokes to 1/4" thick or chop them, because they do tend to break.  Using less than half of the sunchokes, make a layer on the bottom of the pan.
7. Layer chopped kale on top of the sunchokes and spread onion over the kale.
8. Spread the rest of the sunchokes evenly over the top of the kale and onions.  Try to cover the kale so it doesn't dry out during baking.
9. Add shredded cheese on top.  The picture below shows 2 oz of cheese.  I tried going diet, bad idea for a cheese lover. You can add all the cheese you want.  I used cheddar cheese, but you can use any type you want to make it your own.  (Somebody try pepperjack and tell me how it tastes.)
10. Bake until the cheese is browned, roughly 25 minutes, and serve.  Like augratin potatoes, this is a good side dish for meat.  It's also really damn good the second day.

Sunchokes before cleaning.

Step 7:  layer sauted onions on top of kale.

Step 7:  layer kale on top of sliced sunchokes.

Step 9:  I used two and a half pounds of sunchokes in the dish shown in this picture (before baking).  I changed the recipe above to 3 lbs, so you can use more sunchokes on top, which will give you more to protect the kale and keep it from drying out.  More cheese will do the same, and brown more.