The New - Week 3 (Cooking artichokes)

Artichokes.

So I actually can't say I have never eaten an artichoke because I have. But it's always been in something (like a pasta dish) or part of an antipasto plate. I've always been curious to try making an artichoke from 'scratch'. So, this week my something New is to prepare and cook a raw artichoke. I even have Joe and my friend Kelly to use as my tasting guinea pigs!

Now, as funny as it sounds, one of the hardest parts of this whole artichoke thing was actually finding an artichoke! I went to 4 different grocery stores before I found one! I wonder if the checkout lady thought it was strange that that was all I bought?

So, I have the artichoke (2 of them actually) and the next step is to do a little Internet research since I have no idea how you are supposed to cook up these suckers. I found a great site (http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_cook_and_eat_an_artichoke/) with an article entitled "How to Cook and Eat an Artichoke" (hmmm...we may be on to something...).

Let's start with the 'Cooking' part:

Step 1: If the artichokes have little thorns on the end of the leaves, take kitchen scissors and cut of the thorned tips of all of the leaves. (yes, I realized the thorns part early on at the grocery store after pricking myself several times and can I just say 'ouch' - I'm hoping it's not their way of saying 'please don't eat us')

2. Slice about 3/4 inch to an inch off the tip of the artichoke. Done.

3. Pull off any smaller leaves towards the base and on the stem. Also done.

4. Cut excess stem, leaving up to an inch on the artichoke. The stems tend to be more bitter than the rest of the artichoke, but some people like to eat them. Alternatively you can cut off the stems and peel the outside layers which is more fibrous and bitter and cook the stems along with the artichokes. I read the word 'bitter' and opted just to hack off the excess stem. So far this has been pretty easy.

5. Rinse the artichokes in running cold water. Brrr!

6. In a large pot, put a couple inches of water, a clove of garlic, a slice of lemon, and a bay leaf (this adds wonderful flavor to the artichokes). Insert a steaming basket. Add the artichokes. Cover. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 25 to 45 minutes or until the outer leaves can easily be pulled off.  Ya, so I don't actually have any garlic cloves since we buy the Costco tub of minced garlic but I did put some of that in. Lemon - check. Bay leaf - check. Water in the pot with a steamer - check. Put the artichokes in and cover the pot. Boil the water and then reduce the heat. And...the waiting begins.

 25 minutes later - Done!

Now for the 'Eating' part:

1. Pull off outer petals, one at a time.

2. Dip white fleshy end in melted butter or sauce. Tightly grip the other end of the petal. Place in mouth, dip side down, and pull through teeth to remove soft, pulpy, delicious portion of the petal. Discard remaining petal.  Continue until all of the petals are removed.

My guinea pigs - Joe and Kelly - trying the artichoke.

Kelly quote: "How do you eat this thing? How much of the leaf are you supposed to eat?"

Joe quote for this whole artichoke eating process: "Who the hell put in this much work to figure that out? And how hungry were they?"

We realized after eating about 20 leaves that there are quite a few leaves on an artichoke and really not a lot of 'meat' on them. We were kinda curious to get to the next part so I basically peeled off the remaining leaves (not an easy process given that the leaves got hotter the more I peeled) so that all we had left was the bottom part. 

 3. With a knife or spoon, scrape out and discard the inedible fuzzy part (called the "choke") covering the artichoke heart. The remaining bottom of the artichoke is the heart. Cut into pieces and dip into sauce to eat. Huh. There really is a fuzzy part and it sort of reminds of some very miniaturized space alien. I removed the fuzzy bits with a spoon and then I cut up what was left and soaked it in butter.

 

Conclusion:

 Joe: "The happiness to effort ratio is far too low to justify eating this on any kind of basis...let alone a regular one."

Me: "What did you think of it Kelly?"

Kelly: "It's good..."

Joe: "My quote's better." (very mature Joe)

Kelly: "I wasn't finished! It was good but I think for me there was too much butter on it."

Joe (final quote): "I now realize why Artichoke is an ingredient in a dip, rather than something people eat alone"

I thought the heart part was quite tasty (but really there isn't a lot of it). So it may not have been a huge hit with my guinea pigs, but at least now I can cross it off my 'New' list!