Last Sunday we picked up some nice looking Italian Artichokes at the Farmers Market. (Pssssst: don’t forget WCC30!)
I really didn’t know what to do with them but jwa assured me that he did.
“Boil them in water,” he instructed.
“For how long?” I asked.
“Hmmm”, he replied, “maybe you should look that up.”
So I did. Not surprisingly, one of the best resources I found was on Simply Recipes: How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke. Which is what I did. Kind of.
Artichokes!
artichokes
water
lemon slices (1-2)
1 -2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
Basically, I followed Elise’s instructions for preparing the artichoke. In very little detail — trim the stem and cut about 3/4 of an inch off the top of the artichoke. We did not bother snipping the ends of the leaves off. Okay. All ready to go.
We also chose to boil them instead of steaming, as jwa had fond memories of boiling artichokes as a youth. This will take 25 – 45 minutes to cook (pot covered), depending on the size of your artichokes. When the leaves pull off easily, they are done! Let them drain upsidedown for a few seconds before serving.
Mmmm….quite tasty dipped in a combination of mayonnaise and balsamic vinegar (I used about a 4/1 ratio). Pull off the leaves and dip in your, uh, dip of choice. Scrape the leaves with your teeth.
After the leaves are gone, you’ll be left with this. Pull of the top fuzzy part (the choke) and you will be left with a delightful artichoke heart. Dip it on the dip and nom it up.
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Oh, I’ve started putting together pdf’s of the blog recipes for easy printing. I’ll try to go through the backlog as time permits but going forward, each recipe will hopefully have an easy way to print out now. Yay!
I love artichokes! Generally I mix mayonnaise and fresh dill for dipping sauce.
One problem with boiling artichokes is that they tend to float at the top, causing irregular cooking.
To combat that, weigh them down with a steamer.
Tombo: Oh, that sounds good!
Laen: Yeah, I had read that. And it sounds like a great way to do it! I just couldn’t muster up the take-charge attitude needed to hunt down my steamer basket thingie
— heyyy!!!! I just figured out who you are after clicking on your blog 
hi there, past wedding guest!
and jwa likes to boil them free-form. says they roll around while they boil. take it up with him next robot-building weekend!
my mom would always steam them with the lemon and bay leaf in the water, but she used a metal trivit instead of a steamer basket… ???! dipping in melted butter sooo good.
Brilliant!!! I’m trying it tonight
DG as well has fond childhood memories of eating artichokes, dipped in butter! But when I lived in Paris, we dipped them in a salad dressing that was made from scratch every evening of just mustard, vinegar and oil.
This place in Seal Beach, CA grills the chokes over an oak fire and serves them with this amazing sauce. They post the recipe on their site.
http://waltswharf.com/recipes.htm