Mother's Herb Garden: Chufa

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You can prepare chufa in any number of ways. You might, perhaps, simply wash the tubers well and eat them raw . . . candy them . . . boil them for approximately an hour before serving them as a vegetable dish . . . or add them to soups and stews.

To serve up a nutty snack, boil the rootlets in salted water for about 30 minutes, drain them until dry, then fry them in hot oil until they're crunchy.

In order to make chufa flour, boil the tubers for 20 minutes, spread them on a cookie sheet, and toast them for about an hour in a 250°F oven. (Roast chufa, by the way, tastes a lot like chestnuts.) Grind the baked earth-almonds to the consistency of fine cornmeal . . . and substitute the powder for half the flour called for in your favorite cake, cookie, or bread recipes.

If you'd like to try some "Chufa Chips"-which are great with dips-sift 1 cup of chufa flour together with 1 cup of wheat flour, 3 teaspoons of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cut in 2 tablespoons of shortening . . . slowly work in 3/4 cup of cold water . . . roll the dough out as thin as possible . . . cut it into two-inch squares . . . and fry them one by one in hot oil, turning the crackers so they puff out on both sides.

You can also duplicate the cold, refreshing Spanish drink we mentioned earlier. Soak 1/2 pound of tubers for two days, then drain and mash them (or process them in a blender) with 1 quart of water sweetened to your taste. Finally, strain the milky mixture and cool it . . . and the drink will be ready to serve. (Children like the beverage frozen into ices.) You might also, now and then, want to mix some "chufa-ade" with an equal volume of light rum, and go on to prepare a "Wild Chufa Daiquiri" in the same manner as you'd make the usual citrus and rum drink.

Another popular European use of the plant is as a coffee substitute. Just wash the tiny tubers and spread them out to dry. Next, roast the "nuts"—in a low oven with the door ajar—until they're a rich brown throughout . . . grind them in a blender . . . and brew the product as you would regular coffee for a wholesome, caffeine-tee treat.

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