Herbed Potato and Sunchoke Home Fries

I'm back! Highlights from the past few weeks:

1. Ate good food. Slept. Read an article in the food issue of The New Yorker. (Repeated this cycle three times a day over the Thanksgiving break.)
   
   
2. Nearly had a nervous breakdown every time I entered the produce section of a supermarket or grocery store. $2.99 a pound for apples? Seriously. Unable to cope and unable to blog.
   
   
3. Visited a weekly farmer's market on the Upper West Side, and bought a squash, some onions, cabbage, baby greens from the greenhouse, fresh thyme, and sunchokes. Feeling saved.

And here we are, the first post-CSA season post.

The sunchoke, also known as the Jerusalem artichoke, is neither from Jerusalem nor a type of artichoke. It is a sunflower (we eat the tubers) whose Italian name (Girasole) sounds like "Jerusalem" and whose taste resembles that of the artichoke.

I made regular old home fries a little more interesting by adding sunchokes and lots of fresh herbs. You could also skip the potatoes and use only sunchokes for this, but be warned: they make some people gassy. Great with eggs and a salad, for dinner or for brunch.

4-5 small sunchokes
3 medium red potatoes
1/2 small red onion, chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used mint and parsley)
a few squeezes of lemon juice

Peel the sunchokes with a vegetable peeler, and remove the knobby parts. Cut into 1/2-inch chunks, and place in a bowl of water with a little bit of lemon juice (this keeps them from turning brown). Par-boil for 5 minutes in salted water. Set aside.

Cut potatoes into pieces that are the same size as the sunchokes. Par-boil in salted water for about 5 minutes.

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add chopped onion, sunchokes, and potatoes. Season with lots of salt (potatoes need a lot more than you’d think) and pepper. Add chopped herbs after a few minutes. Cook until potatoes are browned and soft, tossing occasionally. Finish with a bit of lemon juice.