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Artichokes and how to prepare them

Oooohhh, artichokes. One of my favourite vegetables.
You can eat them boiled, chew on the leaves, and then enjoy the heart.
You can use them in pastas, with a touch of bacon or pancetta.
You can cover the hearts in batter and deep-fry them, as they do in Spain, or simply slice the (raw) hearts and deep-fry them.
You can use them for making Spanish croquettes.
You can use them with leeks, bacon and some Sage Derby cheese for a quiche.
You can stuff them.
I only use fresh artichokes, so the process is a little bit fussy, but the difference in flavour is about 1,000 times better than those awful, jarred things.
 
This is a large globe artichoke, microwaved. Its by far the easiest way to cook them.

Globe artichoke:

Here is what is left once you have eaten the base of the tough leaves dipped in vinaigrette. You pull off the remaining small leaves which sit like a hat on the 'choke'. Then the hairy inedible choke is revealed. Use a teaspoon to remove it (it comes away easily) and you are left with the artichoke base: the 'fond d'artichoke'. This is the treasure. Chop it up in the vinaigrette and enjoy.

You cannot create artichoke heart as sold in jars/tins unless you have a young immature globe artichoke which has not yet formed the hairy choke.

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Preparing fresh ones from scratch is a bit laborious, I suppose.
You need to trim the stalk , which is edible, then snap off al the leaves until you reach the choke, or heart. With a teaspoon, you can scrape out the hairy bit and then you've got the heart all by itself. It needs to go into acidulated water immediately, because it begins to oxidise once exposed to the air. The leaves can be boiled for 10-15 minutes and served with butter, lemon juice, olive oil, etc. as a snack. Alternately, you can take each cooked leaf and scrape off the "meat"from the bottom, which can be used accordingly.
The heart can be diced or sliced or left whole.There's a Tapas bar in Barcelona that slices them thick and then fries them in olive oil. You can also slice them thick, wrap them in bacon and bake until cooked through, as an amuse bouche. Dice the hearts (cooked), mix with garlic, sundried tomatoes, anchovies, olives ( black and white), capers, basil and come chayote squash (adds a bit of volume!) and you've got a lovely antipasto or a topping for bruschetta or montadito. Mix with bacon or pancetta, a little fried onion, garlic, sage and a bit of cream, or cream cheese, and you can make quiche, or fill tartlets, or make pasties (empanadas).
 
karadekoolaid said:
Preparing fresh ones from scratch is a bit laborious, I suppose.
You need to trim the stalk , which is edible, then snap off al the leaves until you reach the choke, or heart. With a teaspoon, you can scrape out the hairy bit and then you've got the heart all by itself. It needs to go into acidulated water immediately, because it begins to oxidise once exposed to the air. The leaves can be boiled for 10-15 minutes and served with butter, lemon juice, olive oil, etc. as a snack. Alternately, you can take each cooked leaf and scrape off the "meat"from the bottom, which can be used accordingly.
The heart can be diced or sliced or left whole.There's a Tapas bar in Barcelona that slices them thick and then fries them in olive oil. You can also slice them thick, wrap them in bacon and bake until cooked through, as an amuse bouche. Dice the hearts (cooked), mix with garlic, sundried tomatoes, anchovies, olives ( black and white), capers, basil and come chayote squash (adds a bit of volume!) and you've got a lovely antipasto or a topping for bruschetta or montadito. Mix with bacon or pancetta, a little fried onion, garlic, sage and a bit of cream, or cream cheese, and you can make quiche, or fill tartlets, or make pasties (empanadas).
Click to expand...
I never make it past the bowl of butter and leaves... 😄
 
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