Welcome to the Forum, Maya. I'm taking a wild shot here-when you stated your request for a gratin recipe I was thinking a potato gratin. Then you said that you wanted something special and not so ordinary and I remembered a gratin recipe from one of my Culinary classes. So here you go, it will introduce you to an incredient you may not have seen or used before. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Sunchoke Gratin
Ingredients
1 pound sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
Salt
An oven-to-table baking dish
Butter for smearing and dotting the baking dish
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
Peel the sunchokes and drop them in salted, boiling water. Ten minutes after the water returns to a boil, check them frequently because they tend to go from very firm to very soft in a brief span of time. (Cook them until they feel tender, but not mushy when prodded with a fork.) Drain when done, and as soon as they are cool enough to handle, cut them into 1/2-inch slices.
Smear the bottom of a baking dish with butter, then place the sunchoke slices in it, arranging them so they overlap slightly, roof tile fashion. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and the grated Parmesan, dot with butter and place the dish on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven. Bake until a light golden crust begins to form on top. Allow to settle for a few minutes out of the oven before serving.
Cook in a preheated 400 degree oven or cook with the Indirect method on a grill. You can cook this in a smoker but remember to raise the heat toward the end of the smoking session to allow the crust to crisp up.
Yield: 4 servings
