I love walking through the produce section in the grocery store; looking for something that I haven’t yet tasted or cooked with, picking it up, putting it in a plastic bag and taking it home as treasure. It’s a blank slate, add a little garlic, maybe some basil or thyme. Kick it up a notch, you know, Emeril style. Well this time, roaming the mountains of fresh produce, I stumbled up on a sale on artichokes. 2 for $3. What a steal! These beautiful vegetables ready to be cooked- crazy I know, but that’s just how I see it.
So I took them home and then skimmed the Internet and the few cookbooks I had for recipes. Come to think of it, I had only ever eaten spinach and artichoke dip from Applebee’s and artichoke hearts in antipasto. I had no idea looking at this vegetable where the heart even was or how to attempt to even eat it. It looks like, in my opinion, an over sized green acorn with thorny leaves. Well my friends, after some research, I figured it all out, you know, got down to the “heart of the matter.”
An artichoke is much like a map. There’s a technique to figuring it out, and if you follow the directions properly, eventually you’ll reach the hidden treasure. I found a recipe on stuffed artichokes and I would highly recommend cooking your own artichokes to get the hearts because the fresh ones definitely beat the ones pre jarred and canned in the grocery store.
Stuffed Artichokes
Adopted from Oceanmistfarms.com
The recipe calls for four artichokes, but since I’m only cooking for me, myself and I, I halved the recipe for my two artichokes. Artichokes are very good on their own, or so I’ve heard, but I wanted to try something a little different, so stuffing them seemed to be a pretty good idea. Don’t overstuff them, or the bread crumbs can be a bit over powering. But in terms of steaming them- you can most certainly just steam them without the stuffing and then just dunk them in melted butter or a mayonnaise dip. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love mayo?
2 large artichokes
2 cups or a little less of Italian style breadcrumbs
3 freshly chopped garlic cloves
¾ cup parmigiano cheese
Olive oil & butter to taste
First, you need to prepare the artichoke. Take the artichoke and wash it under cold water. I learned that you should take a scrub brush to it; artichokes produce a natural film while growing to protect their leaves, and scrubbing the leaves gets that film off. The film tends to leave a bitter taste on the outer leaves if you don’t scrub them.
Next, with a sharp knife take about an inch off the top of the artichoke. Then, depending on how deep your pan is, trim the stem so you can stand it upright to steam in the pan. The stem is actually a continuation of the heart, so leave as much as you can.
Rubbing the leaves down with lemon also prevents browning, however, I’m not cooking for the four seasons so I just skipped this step. Finally, spread the leaves out and you’re ready!
In a large bowl combine the garlic, parmigiano cheese and breadcrumbs. Mix this together and separate the leaves of the artichoke.
Drizzle olive oil over the leaves of the artichoke and spoon the stuffing into the spread leaves.
Once stuffed, place the artichokes upright into a steamer or a pan with a covering of water on the bottom and steam for about 30-40 min or until the leaves are tender and soft to the touch.
I found that the stuffing actually works better if you bake the artichokes, so if you want to steam it for a while and pop it in the oven at 350 degrees, the breadcrumbs get a little crispier.
To finish, dip the artichoke leaves in melted butter or any other preferable dip. I ate mine plain because I really wanted to get the full taste effect.
Now, my friends, if you’ve never eaten an artichoke before, this could potentially pose a problem. But don’t be threatened by those pointy leaves. To successfully eat an artichoke you just have to be afraid to get messy and be afraid to really get your fingers dirty- this is not a vegetable for the debutante ball.
Start with the outermost petals by pulling it off the artichoke. Pull the petal through lightly clenched teeth to remove the soft, flesh at the bottom of the petal. You might want a bowl to discard the petals, although I prefer to just arrange them nicely on my plate.
Continue until all petals have been removed. When you reach the end, there will be this fuzzy looking thing staring you in the face. Don’t be alarmed- this is the choke! Scrape this away and what you now have is the artichoke heart! Stem and all! My favorite- so cut it into pieces, dunk it into whatever you have conjured up and enjoy!
Happy Artichoke steaming!!!
