Let's talk artichokes..

[Kayelle]

I love artichokes. When I was growing up my dad had a job hauling produce from the Delta into the packing sheds. It was amazing how many crates of produce....artichokes, asparagus, corn, squash, potatoes, celery.. bounced off the top of his truck. Some times supper was a huge pot of the day's mishap, perfect for our vegetarian mother.

So much beautiful produce comes from the central valley of California. If we don't get some much needed rain to get us out of this drought, the entire country will feel the hurt.

 

[Cheryl J]

+1....

Kayelle, thank you for posting back of your success with the stuffed artichokes. I am SO going to try this! It sounds and looks wonderful.

 

[Mad Cook]

I have an over abundance of big beautiful artichokes and I came across this great video. I like it because it moves so fast and gets right to the point with great music to boot. I paused it the second time I watched it so I could write down the ingredients. Before I get into the kitchen, I thought I'd share it with all of you......

Stuffed Artichokes - YouTube


So do you like artichokes, and what do you do with them?

Very simple tastes. Boiled/steamed and eaten with hollandaise sauce or balsamic vinaigrette.

 

[Mad Cook]

My daughter probably took them. I can't tell you how many times my kitchen has been raided by my kids. You can usually find those spoons in your local Dollar Store.

I had a set once too but they disappeared. Perhaps grapefruit spoons are nomadic.

Never been able to find any in the shops. Must look on line.

As regards the recipe which does sound gorgeous, I'm afraid I have to paraphrase Shirley Conran and say "Life's too short to stuff artichokes"

 

[Kayelle]

I had a set once too but they disappeared. Perhaps grapefruit spoons are nomadic.

Never been able to find any in the shops. Must look on line.

As regards the recipe which does sound gorgeous, I'm afraid I have to paraphrase Shirley Conran and say "Life's too short to stuff artichokes"

I believe the quote is mushrooms, although I think the life of a foodie is long enough to stuff both.

 

[CatPat]

Why do I never see artichokes served in restaurants like the way I described? I've never seen this here.

With love,
~Cat

 

[Janet H]

Why do I never see artichokes served in restaurants like the way I described? I've never seen this here.

With love,
~Cat

My guess is the reason you don't see steamed artichokes in restaurants often (in this simple form) is that they take a long time to cook. The area of the country you live in may also be a factor but I had an artichoke recently at Early Girl in Asheville so maybe this is changing...

I routinely see small artichokes served in italian and spanish style restaurants, pan seared with tomatoes or served with pasta.

 

[Addie]

This thread got me to hankering. So I bought four small artichokes yesterday. I will just steam them and dip in melted butter. Two for me, and two for The Pirate. But until the time comes for them, we will be having chicken salad sandwiches. We had KFC Original yesterday. It was horrible. Too dang salty. There were eight pieces, four for The Pirate and four for me. One piece each was all we could get down. But did make a massive dent in the cole slaw. So tonight I peeled off all the skin and meat from the other pieces. Cut up a med. onion and four stalks of celery. Will mix in some celery seed and mayo tomorrow. But will be looking forward to the artichokes. Been a couple of years since I had one.

 

[DianaP81]

Herry, Italian dressing is it?
I cook the artichokes in the same way and I cook in a pan the stem and the heart to part with pepper and bacon

 

[Kayelle]

Addie, I ordered 2 new grapefruit spoons on ebay ($6.00, free shipping) and they arrived this morning.

Guess I need to go get more artichokes!

Another question for everyone...

Do you cook your artichokes stem up or stem down? I noticed in the video they were cooked stem up in the pot with liquid and I've always done them stem down. I wonder which way would be better?

 

[Cheryl J]

I trim the top part of the leaves off so they'll sit flat and steam them stem side up, so that much of the water can drain back out as they steam. It's also easier that way to check for doneness by poking a skewer through the stem. They just seem to cook more evenly that way, at least for me.

 

[Dawgluver]

I trim the top part of the leaves off so they'll sit flat and steam them stem side up, so that much of the water can drain back out as they steam. It's also easier that way to check for doneness by poking a skewer through the stem. They just seem to cook more evenly that way, at least for me.

How do you do it, Cheryl? Your pics are all so gorgeous!

 

[salt and pepper]

I trim the top part of the leaves off so they'll sit flat and steam them stem side up, so that much of the water can drain back out as they steam. It's also easier that way to check for doneness by poking a skewer through the stem. They just seem to cook more evenly that way, at least for me.

That looks yummy, nice job Cheryl

 

[Cheryl J]

Thank you Dawg, and salt. That pic was from summer when I still had flowers blooming.

Dawg, I just point and shoot with my cellphone. I have a little Nikon Coolpix but I rarely use it anymore. My cell is always handy, always charged, and takes better pics than my camera does.

 

[Dawgluver]

I use a cellphone too, but my pics don't look nearly as good, Cheryl!

 

[Cheryl J]

Oh I don't know about that, Dawg, your sewing projects looked crystal clear to me.

 

[Cheryl J]

I made two stuffed artichokes today, from the recipe on the video that was posted. I had one for dinner, and wrapped up the other one to reheat tomorrow.

Very, very good! The only thing I did different was I subbed fresh chopped baby spinach for the herbs, because that's what I had on hand. Next time I'll steam the artichokes for a less amount of time, because many of the outer leaves fell off once I stuffed them. I oversteamed them.

But it was still very good, and I'll definitely make these again.

 

[Kayelle]

I made two stuffed artichokes today, from the recipe on the video that was posted. I had one for dinner, and wrapped up the other one to reheat tomorrow.

Very, very good! The only thing I did different was I subbed fresh chopped baby spinach for the herbs, because that's what I had on hand. Next time I'll steam the artichokes for a less amount of time, because many of the outer leaves fell off once I stuffed them. I oversteamed them.

But it was still very good, and I'll definitely make these again.

Glad you liked the recipe too Cheryl! It's funny that I also used spinach in place of the herbs, great minds I guess. Next time I also will under cook them before the final cook in the oven.

As you recommended, I cooked my last two artichokes stem up a couple of nights ago. As I said before I've always done them stem down. I drained them upside down for about a half hour and they were still so full of water I had to hand squeeze the excess water out. I felt that some of the flavor went down the drain too. Did I do something wrong, or is this normal for the method?

 

[Cheryl J]

Yep, great minds, Kayelle! I almost always have fresh spinach and use it in so many things. Even if I had fresh basil, I don't think I would have used it, it just didn't seem right in this dish.

Your post really gave me food for thought. I almost always have to squeeze some water out of the artichokes, even after draining, no matter if they are cooked upside down or right side up. I looked back on my dad's method of making artichokes when I was a child and I don't recall them being watery at all. He didn't trim them, or open them up to rinse them first, like I do. But I didn't watch every step he made, I just ate them and loved them. I remember being horrified when he first served them, I couldn't believe I was expected to eat something with thorns that looked like they did.

I get pretty good results with my steamer basket, it keeps them up and out of the water. The only thing with that, is my steamer basket will barely hold two artichokes without trimming them down quite a bit. I think I'll use the steamer basket method again next time, and not open them up as much to clean them.

I'm on a mission now to make unwatery artichokes and think I'll try them different ways until I find the perfect way. If that's possible.

One way that looks sooo good to me, is steaming them about halfway, then cutting them in half vertically and grilling them the rest of the way.

 

[Addie]

I purchased four small artichokes. The leaves didn't have to be trimmed at all. But I did rinse them and trimmed the stem and about a half inch off the top. Put them into water with lemon juice. Instead of draining off the water, I steamed them right in the lemon water. They were really tender although with a lot of liquid in them. I just put them upside down to drain a bit. The Pirate couldn't wait. He melted some butter with a smashed garlic clove and dug into the first one while the others were draining. He could taste the lemon and liked it. Will do that again the next time. Two of them had no chokes. The other two had very small ones. Easy to remove with a grapefruit spoon. A bonus!

All four of these artichokes were just the right size. And steaming them in the lemon water give them added cooked in flavor that wasn't expected.