A Simple Way to Make Artichokes

My Favorite and Simple Way to Make Artichokes

My History with Artichokes

A big hello to you all! This is my story, a history of how I developed my love for artichokes. Later I will have a quick video showing a simple way to make artichokes. But first some background. Growing up in a Sicilian family, all my life’s events were always surrounded by food. And the major holidays were Mamma Mia, over the top amazing with the quality and quantity of a feast that was painstakingly prepared. Always and I mean always, one of the food items that had to be included during these holiday feasts was the artichoke. So Thanksgiving, Psalm Sunday, Christmas, and Easter just to name a few had to include artichokes.

My Mother’s Artichokes

Okay, admittedly I was spoiled with my mother’s artichokes. After prepping all the artichokes for 20 -30 people, she would then stuff each leaf of each artichoke with an amazing Italian breadcrumb and sausage stuffing. OMG! Did I mention each leaf of 20 -30 artichokes? The result was a combination of the earthiness of the artichoke with the Italian essence of the stuffing. I was hooked from the moment I tasted my first stuffed leaf.

How I Saved Thanksgiving.

That’s how I remember it anyway. LOL! There was one particular Thanksgiving when there was a shortage of artichokes due to some late frost or something. I remember this was a few years after my dad passed away from prostate cancer. At the time my mom was still trying to figure out her already frugal money management, especially without my dad. The cost of the artichokes spiked to $5.99 each. This was way above the usual cost.

Coming Home for Thanksgiving

As usual, I made the annual trek and flew in from Colorado the day before the big turkey and in my house lasagna event. As always, I was ready to help prep the artichokes. To my surprise, there were none to be found. After I found out why I rushed to the grocery store, I think back then it was the A&P and scooped up the last of the store’s artichoke inventory. I made it back to mom’s kitchen where mom immediately scolded me for spending so much money on them. But she was excited that we would have them for our feast. I think it was my mom, later that night who exclaimed that I saved Thanksgiving.

Fast Forward to Now

As time passed my remembrance of the time and prep work, not to mention the effort of stuffing the leaves, prevented me from making my own artichokes. Until I met the love of my life. Check her blog JTouchOfStyle.com. Marrying her of course was the best thing that has ever happened to me. And her “can do” attitude is so contagious. One day she asked me if I knew how to make artichokes? I stuttered and responded that it is a lot of work. Without hesitation Jodie responded with her question “how hard can it be?”. I love this woman! And so our artichoke-making journey began.

Step By Step Guide to Making Artichokes

So here we go with my step-by-step guide on how to make our favorite artichokes. Prepping is the most time-consuming but after a few times doing it, it really isn’t a big deal.

Prepping Each Artichoke

• Wash your artichokes.
• Remove one or two rows of leaves at the base of the artichoke.
• Cut the artichoke stem off, leaving a flat base on the bottom. Save the stem.
• With a scissors, snip the tips of all the leaves, removing the pointy part which can pinch you if you’re not careful.
• You will still have a crown of pointy leaves at the top of the artichoke. So cut off the top of the artichoke.
• Bang the top of the artichoke on the cutting board to open it up.
• Trim the outside layer of the stem.

Cooking the Artichoke

Use a 5-quart pan and fill half to 3/4 with water. You should have enough to cover most of the artichokes when you add them into the pot. Sometimes the artichokes do float. Then if desired, you can add a cup of your favorite wine. We add either red or white, depending on what we have opened at the time.

Continue Cooking the Artichoke and Add the Spices.

Add desired amounts and type of spices. I suggest starting with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and perhaps lemon pepper. If you would like an Italian flavor, then add oregano, parsley, Mediterranean thyme, and maybe a bay leaf. Or instead, you can add some garam masala spice and or curry powder for an India flare. Experiment because you can use whichever spices you have or like.

Steam and or Boil

So I just started a steaming step at the end of the cooking time to make the leaves more tender. To start, bring to a boil and add the clean and prepped artichokes along with the cleaned stems to the boiling water. Add the spices and wine. Then simmer for 30 – 45 minutes. At 30 minutes test to see if one of the leaves is easy to pull off. If not, add a cover to the pot and simmer for another 15 minutes. Test again to see if a leaf is easy to pull off the artichoke. Let cool.

Aioli

What we didn’t do when I was growing up was to dip the leaves in some type of aioli. Remember all the leaves were stuffed with a wonderful Italian stuffing. But now we make an aioli. It’s usually garlic base. But you can do anything you want. We start with mayo, lemon or lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic and herb seasoning. Sometimes we will add onion powder and lemon pepper. As you might suspect, we usually just wing it with amounts and ingredients.

How to Eat and Enjoy

Okay now that you have the artichokes cooked and the aioli ready; it’s time to dig in. Tip, you will need a plate or bowl to discard the eaten leaves. So pull a leaf off the artichoke and dip the tip into the aioli. Now depending on your style, grip the leaf with two hands. My wife only uses one hand. Bring the inside of the leaf up to your mouth and scrape the soft part of the leaf with your teeth. Mamma mia! Delizioso! Repeat until you get to the smaller yellow leaves guarding the heart. Scoop or pull these little leaves off the heart. And very importantly, then scoop out the choke which looks like little needles. See the below video. Remember, you do not want to eat the choke part. But the heart is fantastic.

Thank you for stopping by and until next time!

Ciao! And buon appetito.

If you want to see last week click here