Whole artichokes are the lobster of vegetables: they have a wonderful delicate taste and are tastiest when eaten with drawn butter. They also aren't cheap, but they do go on sale in the spring and the fall. We saw globe artichokes the for sale on Sunday so I snapped up a few for dinner.



Artichokes are big and take quite a while to cook. The trick to getting everything to cook evenly is to trim some of the outer bits that would be too tough to eat, and allow more of the boiling water to reach the middle. Lop off the top, remove two or three layers of the outermost petals and trim the tips off of the remaining ones. Be careful, some varieties of artichokes have spikes.



Bring a stock pot about 2/3 full of salted water to a boil. Drop in your trimmed artichokes. Boil for about 45 minutes, less if you have smaller, fist sized artichokes.

If I didn't have my husband around the first time I made artichokes, I would never have figured out how to eat them. Artichokes are big unopened flowers; you might see the deep purple of the artichoke bloom on the outer petals. The edible parts of the flower are the fleshy parts at the bottom of the petals and the tender base that connects to the stem.



First, we eat the petals. Pull them off one-by-one and dip them into the butter. Clark likes do dip his in lemon mayonnaise as well, but it's a personal preference. Scrape off the tender bottom part with your teeth.



Keep pulling off petals and eating them. They'll get get thinner and more delicate as you work your way to the center and you'll be able to eat them in chunks. Once the petals are gone you'll left with the fleshy base of the flower. Scrape off the inedible layer of stamens and pistils.



Some people call this the heart of the artichoke, and it's by far the best part. Dip it in butter and enjoy!

Labels: food, projects

posted by Alison 3/30/2009 09:24:00 PM : (0) comments : splink