It is cardoon season, and this veg has an AOC (what is an AOC, anyway?)

Cardoon season is shifting into gear in Geneva - December is when the “Reserve your fresh cardoons for the holidays” signs start appearing at market stalls, and pyramids of the prepared vegetable in jars are piled high in stores.

Why is a vegetable some say resembles ‘celery on steroids’ so special to the Genevois? For many Genevois, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without cardons au gratin - stock-cooked cardoons, oven-browned in béchamel sauce, grated cheese optional - served with roast turkey or chicken.

But tradition aside, just what makes the Geneva cardoon stand out?

Thorny giant

Its appearance, for one thing. Fully grown at 1.5 to 2 meters tall (about 5.5 to 7 feet), a Geneva cardoon is an impressive presence with thorny, fibrous stalks and large thorn-edged leaves covered on one side with a fuzz that gives them a silvery look.

Considerably pared down before they go to market, their mean stems nevertheless have to be wrapped in paper. “Believe me, you don’t want those thorns in your skin,” says Philippe Magnin, a local grower. “Not only do they really hurt, they also break easily, so when you try and remove them you may snap off the top; the spike stays in.”

You can keep fresh cardoons for ten to 15 days at 2 or 3°C “but keep them wrapped in paper. Storing them in plastic makes them swell with water and turn black,” he says.

This feisty veg usually finds a way to come up punching. Even after cooking - unless liberally sprinkled with lemon juice - don’t take it out of the water while you make a sauce; it will turn black.

So why bother?

“In terms of texture and flavor, the Geneva cardoon quite simply has no competition,” says Magnin. This is largely due to a time-consuming and costly process known as blanching.

Alert observers can see blanching in action in the Geneva countryside from October through December: cardoons bagged and tied the length of their stalks so that they bend over in the field, resembling a pack of hunched crones with crazy hair.

Covering the stalks to stop photosynthesis not only keeps them white, it also activates the process that makes them less fibrous, more tender, and tastier than their Spanish and French (canned, and cheaper) competitors.

Recipes

How to tackle fresh cardoons in the kitchen? Wearing gloves, remove the leaves from  stems; the stems rise up out of a bulb rather like celery but taste much more like  artichoke, which is of the same plant family.

Detach each stalk from the base, remove the thorns, and peel. Then cut the stalks into smaller pieces of about an inch.

Some cook cardoons like artichokes, letting them stand in cold water and lemon juice after peeling and cutting, then throwing them in boiling water with a bit of vinegar and cooking for 10 to 20 minutes before sautéing in butter. Others serve cardoons with bone marrow.

But they are delicious as well in soups, especially velouté - and one Geneva chef once concocted an entire (and superb) cardoon meal that included cardoon ice cream and cardoon tiramisu for dessert.

You can also run a Google search on ‘cardoon’ for an astonishing array of tasty recipes, especially Italian soups and baked dishes, or cardi trippati - a side dish of cardoons cooked in chicken broth with onion then topped with butter, lemon, cinnamon and grated parmesan.

But do remember: if you want to cut down on the work, prepared Geneva cardoons are available in jars in supermarkets and food halls like Manor and Globus delicatessa all over the country.

Some history

Geneva’s Plainpalais silver thorny cardoon is the result of crossing five different varieties of a plant that originated in the Mediterranean basin. The Plainpalais in the formal name - cardon argenté épineux de Plainpalais - refers to what is today part of downtown Geneva. During the 16^th century it referred to flatlands outside the city walls where French Huguenot growers cultivated produce.

In October 2003 the Geneva cardoon became the first (and so far, only) ‘officially protected’ Swiss vegetable by being granted an ‘AOC’ (for appellation d’origine contrôlée) - more about that below.

In Switzerland, cardoons of any variety are grown almost exclusively in Geneva or in neighboring Canton Vaud, but obviously - again, see below for why - the Plainpalais AOC kind can only be grown in Geneva.

Most fresh Geneva cardoons are sold in the few days before Christmas - some 20 to 30 tons of them. Specialty stores stock them during the winter only and many stores that don’t stock them will order fresh cardoons at client request in season.

More at www.cardongenevois.com.

***

AOCs for Swiss food products

The designation, known in English as a PDO for Denomination of Protected Origin, is a kind of registered trademark that makes a brand out of the traditional method of producing the food in a specific place. Every step of the production of any AOC item must be 100 per cent place-bound.

Production is carefully monitored by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, (www.blw.admin.ch) which grants the designation and has recognized seventeen Swiss foods in this way, including the Geneva cardoon.

But only thirteen of these foods actually sport the AOC logo: the cardoon; eight cheeses (Gruyère, Vacherin fribourgeois, Vacherin Mont d’Or, Etivaz, Tête de Moine, Raclette du Valais, Sbrinz and Bern Alp-und Hobelkäse); two Valais fruit brandies (pear and apricot); Valais rye bread; and Graubünden corn flour known as Rheintaler Ribelmais.

The other AOC products are: Emmentaler and Formaggio d’alpe ticinese cheeses; saffron from Mund in the Valais; and the Botzi pear.

Five sausage products (St. Galler Kalbsbratwurst,  saucisse d’Ajoie, saucisson neuchâtelois, saucisson vaudois, saucisse aux choux vaudoise) and two air-dried meats (from Valais and Graubünden, respectively) bear an IGP logo. This stands for indication géographique protégée, and is known in English as Protected Geographical Indication or PGI. All but Bündnerfleisch (viande des Grisons) and the St. Galler Bratwurst sport the logo.

More (also about terroir, a notion many non-Europeans have trouble coming to grips with) at www.aoc-igp.ch  - but only in French and German.

***

This blog is mostly based on articles by Gail Mangold-Vine published in Swiss News and Terrific Terroir.

Illustration  courtesy of Union Maraîchère de Genève (cardoons before blanching)