"No, you don't eat the spikes."

[theweaselking]

Reason #211 that John Is No Longer Allowed In The Kitchen Unsupervised.

That being said, I made roasted artichokes.

Start (and finish, if you like) with this recipe. Seriously, it's great. Reproducing it here with a few notes for my own records,

Ingredients:
4 whole large artichokes
2 lemons, halved
4 cloves garlic, peeled, left whole
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 425.
Saw the base off the artichoke like you normally would when steaming it, then saw off the top 3cm or so of the plant.
Pull out four big squares of tin foil. Stick a few drops of olive oil in the middle of each, and then plop a sawed-off artichoke down in the middle.
Stuff the garlic into the middle of the artichokes. Use lots, it's delicious. Just shove it right down the middle, pushing the soft central leaves apart and out of the way. You want the top of the garlic at or below the sawed-off level of the leaves.
If your artichoke has really tight leaves, spread them a little bit. You want the next ingredients to go down into the center of the plant through many openings, not run off the edge because the tight packing is waterproof.
Put 1/4 tsp salt on each artichoke. Some of the salt should fall through the gaps in the leaves, most will probably sit on top.
Pour 1 tbsp olive oil onto each salted artichoke. This will start washing the salt into the artichoke.
Squeeze half a lemon onto each salted oiled artichoke. This will wash the salt and oil into the artichoke.
wrap the tinfoil up around the artichoke and twist the top tightly closed, like a Hershey's Kiss. Use a second layer of tin foil if you think it needs it.
Roast in the oven for 1h30m. Remove from oven, let sit for 20m. Unwrap, eat like a normal artichoke but way better.

They're also delicious refrigerated on the next day.

Comments

[torrain.livejournal.com]

"Delicious" is possibly not an awesome enough word.

[jerril]

I... clearly need to buy artichokes.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

YES. DELICIOUS.

If you'd been at work on Monday I would have shared a leaf or two with you.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

(In fact, I may make them again tomorrow. If so: Lunch Thursday may be on me.)

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

I've never eaten an artichoke besides artichoke and spinach dip. But this sounds really good, and I might want to try it!

[moiread]

Oh, this is brilliant! What I usually do is just add a bunch of lemon and garlic and basil to the water in the pot for steaming, which adds some flavour, but this would be way better. OM NOM NOM.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

THIS IS WHAT YOU TURNED DOWN WHEN YOU DID NOT COME TO DINNER.

[moiread]

DO NOT GUILT ME FOR BEING A PERSON WITH CHRONIC HEALTH ISSUES. :P

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

THAT WAS MORE "YOU MISSED OUT AND ARE WELCOME NEXT TIME".

[moiread]

WELL OKAY. :D

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

SO THERE.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

btw, if you don't eat the spikes, what part DO you eat? No one ever taught me how to eat an artichoke..

[moiread]

At the top of every leaf is a spiky bit. Some of them come off in transport or food prep, but not all, and not always. I like to take them off but not everybody bothers. Some people just avoid 'em.

At the bottom of every leaf, once you pull it off, there is a fleshy mass where it used to be attached to the heart of the artichoke. You put the bottom of the leaf between your teeth and pull, so that the flesh gets scraped off onto your tongue. Once you start to get towards the center of the artichoke, near the heart, the leaves get softer and softer, so that you no longer have to scrape and can simply bite the bottom clean off. By the very end, you eat the leaf whole.

Once you've denuded the artichoke completely, what's left is called the heart. It looks just like a flower with all the petals torn off, because that's effectively what it is. It has reproductive bits across the top, which just look like fuzz. Some people like to eat the fuzz but most (as far as I can tell) don't. So you scrape the fuzz off, and eat the base underneath. It's very soft and fleshy and flavourful. (When you buy canned artichoke hearts in stores, de-fuzzed heart bases are what you're buying.)

Some people like to dip the bottom of the leaf in something before eating each one, like clarified butter or else a mayonnaise-based dip. I doubt that the preparation John gave above would need anything extra like dip, though.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

I couldn't ask for a better reply, thanks!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

For reference: The "traditional" way of eating an artichoke is to steam it, then dip each leaf base in melted butter with a bit of lemon (or some kind of mayo-based dip) before scraping the "meat" off. The recipe I've just linked requires none of that - you just pull the leaves off, scrape the base off with your teeth, and swallow, because it's cooked with delicious salt, oil, garlic, and lemon.

You still discard the top part of each leaf - the rough corn-husk-like-bit with the spike at the top - after eating the base of each leaf. And you carefully scrap the "hairs" off the heart before you eat the heart.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this sounds easier, lol. I never got the hang of steaming things..

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

For the record: This isn't actually "easier". It requires cooking for longer, with more prep, than traditional steaming. But it's SIMPLER than steaming if you don't already like steaming things.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

lol, okay, be technical about it. that's what i meant.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Only prob is garlic usually gives me indigestion.. I'll give it a try, anyway. But I wonder if there is some other sort of thing I could use to flavor it with instead..

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Roasted garlic is very much not "garlic" - it's the difference between cooked onions and raw, or between cooked carrots and raw.

I mean, it's still GARLIC but all the harshness is gone and the caustic oils that give it the sharpness are gone.

Roasted artichoke with salt and lemon and olive oil would still be awesome, even without the garlic.

Still, I would try this without the garlic for only half the recipe if you really hate garlic, or substitute chunks of onion in place of it, but try at least one with garlic because I think roasted garlic is so different from raw that it might change your opinion.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

It has nothing to do with disliking garlic, I actually really like garlic. It just doesn't agree with my stomach =/ I don't think the way it is prepared is going to fix that.

[cleodhna.livejournal.com]

A lot of people find the innermost bit of the garlic-- the bit that goes green when it starts to sprout-- completely indigestible, but the rest of it is just fine. Try slicing your cloves in half longways and removing that bit, maybe?

[moiread]

You're welcome! I was basically raised by wolves and didn't start learning how to cook things properly or having food adventures of any kind until adulthood, and even then most of it was learned from friends or the internet. I did a lot of asking, "How do I do this? How do I eat this?" But food is WONDERFUL, as it turns out, and so I am always happy to pay it forward. Let us all enjoy delicious things! Om nom nom.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's basically where I am at.. My childhood was spent eating spaghetti, mac n cheese, and fast food.