Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What Are We Eating Wednesday? Artichokes

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I grew up eating artichokes and I LOVE them... however I have come to realize that many people have never eaten them... and even more, many people who like them but don't know how to cook them! Here is my preferred method for cooking these TASTY little flowers!

Start with clean artichokes and trim the pointy parts of the leaves off... also trim a bit of the stem off. I use scissors and a sharp knife to do this.... and a handful of patience as it takes a couple minutes to get all the pokeys off.

This is about how much I trim off the bottom and stem... then just trim up the few leaves that were too short to get in the first round (they are just sharp... so it makes it easier for eating).

Set them in a pot and fill 1-2 in. with water. Just enough for it to be sitting in the water but not submerged. Then sprinkle with salt. I REALLY prefer to use kosher salt... but table salt or sea salt work as well. The kosher salt is a little more dense and soaks in pretty well. I also like to put a little garlic in here too... either fresh minced or dried minced garlic work.

Cover and boil for 10min or until fork tender (the stem and top should be nice and tender).

To eat, allow to cook slightly then peel each leaf off... then scrape the inner meaty flesh from the leaf. It is a little work, but OH SO TASTY! I like to dip mine in butter... mmmmmm!
Serve up with your favorite meals... and enjoy!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't know if you know this about me, but I could eat artichokes for every meal of the day everyday! So what time is dinner? I personally like to dip mine in mayo. Thanks for making me hungry now with those pictures! haha
Stacey

krista said...

mmmm. i love artichokes. i dip them in butter too.

Anonymous said...

I grew up eating artichokes but never knew that once you were done eating the mat off the leaves, you can eat the heart. It's seriously the BEST part. Didn't know if you cut the hairy parts off when you are done and dig into the heart? With butter- so yummy!

Anonymous said...

when the leaf is separated from the stalk, do I scrape the leaf and eat what is scraped off, with a spoon? Or do I eat off the leaf, and then be done?
I have had this question for 40 years. Thanks for an answer!

Michelle Turner said...

Great question... pull the leaf off and then I scrape the meat from the leaf using my teeth. I have never seen anyone do this any other way. There is a limited amount of meat on each leaf, so you don't get huge mouthfuls... but a small amount from each leaf. Then you are done with that leaf and move onto the next!
Hope this helps...
and YES the heart is amazingly tasty... scrape off the "choke" or the fuzzy part, and eat the stem and the heart... dipped in butter! YUM!!

kathleen said...

It is like you just saw me throw away an artichoke on monday because I didn't know how to make it. I bought it thinking I would try to find something online telling me how to cook it... and then here is your blog post. thank you so much! I'm going to try again.