Artichokes

I think so many of us have been challenged with the Artichoke; it's so hard to cook properly. They're fairly rare to find, and then when you buy some and screw them up, it's frustrating..

So, I'm always on the lookout for good artichokes, baby artichokes. I found some today at a specialty store. I was determined to do them nicely, and they turned out wonderful (for once!).

Washed them first (by submerging them under water with a plate on top for about 20 minutes), and then rinsed them off.

Chopped off the stems and put them on a rack in the pressure cooker on a steaming rack. There were no thorns on these as they were young, so no need to cut off the tops of the leaves. I added some garlic and lemon to the water, and put in about a half cup of chicken stock (total about 1.3 cups of liquid). I set the cooker to about :13 minutes (you could go about 8-10 at low altitude) on high pressure.

While the chokes were cooking I made up a lemon, garlic, butter sauce on the stove. When the timer on the chokes went off I let them sit in pressure for about 5 minutes and then vented the pot with 'quick release'.

Oh MAN!! These turned out fantastic! I am impressed!

Have some Balsamic, Garlic herb chicken coming up, and some fresh greens. If that even turns out half as good I'm going to be a happy man tonight!!

Recipes on request.

ETA - On the... "don't waste anything ... front, I also cooked the stems even. If you cut the outside of the stems off after cooking, the insides are delicious just like the artichoke hearts!!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
I think so many of us have been challenged with the Artichoke; it's so hard to cook properly. They're fairly rare to find, and then when you buy some and screw them up, it's frustrating..

So, I'm always on the lookout for good artichokes, baby artichokes. I found some today at a specialty store. I was determined to do them nicely, and they turned out wonderful (for once!).

Washed them first (by submerging them under water with a plate on top for about 20 minutes), and then rinsed them off.

Chopped off the stems and put them on a rack in the pressure cooker on a steaming rack. There were no thorns on these as they were young, so no need to cut off the tops of the leaves. I added some garlic and lemon to the water, and put in about a half cup of chicken stock (total about 1.3 cups of liquid). I set the cooker to about :13 minutes (you could go about 8-10 at low altitude) on high pressure.

While the chokes were cooking I made up a lemon, garlic, butter sauce on the stove. When the timer on the chokes went off I let them sit in pressure for about 5 minutes and then vented the pot with 'quick release'.

Oh MAN!! These turned out fantastic! I am impressed!

Have some Balsamic, Garlic herb chicken coming up, and some fresh greens. If that even turns out half as good I'm going to be a happy man tonight!!

Recipes on request.

Used to make a sauce that was good on top of chicken.

Grilled chicken in a bed of wild rice.

Sauce:
Sautee (sp?) garlic/butter/mushrooms/artichoke hearts (possibly chalets if you'd like)

add a little chicken stock

add a little heavy cream

add a little rue

flambouy (sorry spelling) with brandy and mix till the sauce "hardens"

pour on the chicken breast


yum.

Well, I take the chicken breasts and brown them first (in the Balsamic/garlic) and then transfer them to the oven.

I guess we could throw some mushrooms in there, but I didn't have any (fresh ones). So, it's a bit of onion and some fresh garlic.

Major storms tonight, so it's really nice to spend time with my lovely wife and my puppies!!! ...all safe and snug in the homestead.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Nothing better than a full belly and a good pup to snuggle with.

Wouldn't have said that to anyone 20 years ago. But I have grown wiser with days and nights on end.

Yeah. They're pretty tasty (and probably healthy) but more trouble than they're worth to prepare and eat. I'd eat them if someone made them for me but I'd rather just eat steamed broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and asparagus. Even those are a little more labor intensive than I like to deal with sometimes.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm saving this one. I've always been afraid to do artichokes for fear of screwing them up royally. But reading this makes me really want to just go for it.
Thank you!!


Also, may I request your recipe for your balsamic garlic chicken? Always looking to make something new and yummy to put in the hubby's tummy.

I don't mind the Jerusalem artichokes, they are sort of like potatoes...the roots.

But I have never had regular artichokes that tasted good. I suppose if prepared right they would be good but I'll just pass on those. I would rather spend the time making a good roast with the roaster spuds, carrots, and onions with some green beans or wax beans on the side.

Some people like artichokes, but maybe they know how to prepare them properly. I had them twice, one at a restaurant and another time at someone's home, maybe you need to go to a restaurant that has real chefs to get a good batch. I have not seen artichokes on a menu around here for quite a while, but then again we do not go to the highest price restaurants where they have stuff like that around here. There are probably only three restaurants with stuff like that around here. We stick to places where the wife and I can get a supper for under forty bucks, then complain how we make so much better food at home now, often for cheaper than the tax and tip on the meal. We have gone to some really expensive restaurants over the years, and were kind of disappointed with what we ordered. A good homecooked meal is better.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You can grow artichokes in Wyoming... I have some up here in Montana that do just fine.

They are basically big thistles.

Personally I can't eat an artichoke without Mayo... just how I was raised, I guess.

Pickling the young ones to put on a salad in the winter is pretty cool too.

Thanks for the cooking post.. you always keep me on my culinary toes!

a reply to: Lumenari

Huh, I didn't know they were in the thistle family! Interesting. I also didn't know you could grow them in Wyoming. About the only thing which grew around us was sagebrush and pinion pine.

Mayo does sound good. Maybe even a garlic lemon mayo concoction might be good too.

originally posted by: Slinki
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm saving this one. I've always been afraid to do artichokes for fear of screwing them up royally. But reading this makes me really want to just go for it.
Thank you!!

My pleasure. It took some experimentation to get them right (mostly due to altitude here in Colorado), but they're definitely worth the effort...if you can find them.

Also, may I request your recipe for your balsamic garlic chicken? Always looking to make something new and yummy to put in the hubby's tummy.

It was actually really easy...

Wisk together:

- 1/3 cup of good balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup of chicken broth
- 3 Garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 Tsp of Italian seasoning (I use Mrs. Dash)

Poke a couple good sized chicken breasts with a fork and marinate for a minimum of 15 minutes. If you do it in a dish, make sure to flip them about halfway through.

Heat some nice olive oil (not EVOO) in a skillet. When hot, add the chicken breasts. Cook until golden brown on one side and flip. After a couple minutes on the second side, add some of the marinade (2-3 tablespoons, or more if you like) to the skillet, and finish the cooking process. Most of the liquid from the marinade will steam off leaving you with a nice thick balsamic-garlic-herb sauce to top the chicken with.

Note - Probably obvious, but discard the rest of the marinade as it has had raw chicken in it. The marinade you added to the skillet did too, but you sterilized that with the cooking process.

a reply to: Fools

That sounds really good.

I will definitely try this!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Oh perfect, thank you so much! Headed to the store this morning, gonna try the chicken tonight!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I have always avoided roasting/steaming artichokes because I was not sure what to cut off and what not to. Thanks for letting me know that the inner part of the outer leaves does not have to be cut off. Did I understand your instructions correctly? I think I might try roasting them in the near future perhaps with rosemary - I shy away from cooking with rosemary too because of it's strong flavour - but I need a new challenge in the kitchen.

a reply to: InTheLight

Cutting the leaves on the artichokes is really a function of two things; age and aesthetics. The older an artichoke is, the more pointed the leaf becomes. All you're trimming is just the barb off the leaf so it looks better. Doesn't really affect anything one way or the other from an eating perspective. You can peel off a couple of the outer leaves if they've pulled away and look dry, but not too many. You don't have to peel any leaves on young artichokes.

The main reason you cut off the stem is so it will sit flat in whatever cooking vessel you're using. You want it to cook in an upright position. As I noted, you can even eat the insides of the stem (just slit it lengthwise after it's cooked, open it up and scoop or peel out the tender center). It's almost like asparagus.

The "inner" part of the artichoke is actually two parts; the "choke" and the heart. The choke is the furry fibrous looking part just under the leaves. You'll uncover this after you eat the leaves. Just scoop all the furry stuff out with a spoon and toss it (it's called a 'choke' because you can choke on it). Scrape only enough to get the choke part out, because under the choke is arguably the best part of the artichoke, the heart. If you scrape too deep you'll dig out some of the yummy heart too. So you want to scrape just enough to get rid of the fibrous stuff, but no more.

To eat the heart you can cut it up into sections, or just eat it whole. It's absolutely dee-licious!

A lot of people think they're all done when they get done eating the leaves, and this is a shame because they're actually throwing away the very best part. They get deterred by the choke not knowing how to deal with it. Just scoop it out and really dig in.

Just a final side note; if you're pressure cooking them you can also drizzle a little lemon and/or add some garlic slivers to the water in the cooker before cooking to give them an even brighter and richer flavor. The lemon just also helps maintain the green color of the artichoke while cooking. They will darken to a browner green color without the lemon juice.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I will go looking for some artichokes maybe tomorrow and give it a try (roasting).

a reply to: InTheLight

Are you going to actually "roast" them, or just steam them in a dutch oven / roasting pan?

I've never tried to actually roast them, so I don't have much advice on cooking times or temps with that method. I'd be worried the leaves might dry out 'roasting' them.

If steaming in a roasting pan or dutch oven, I'd just add a few minutes to the cooking time to make up the difference between the elevated temps in a pressure cooker.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: InTheLight

Are you going to actually "roast" them, or just steam them in a dutch oven / roasting pan?

I've never tried to actually roast them, so I don't have much advice on cooking times or temps with that method. I'd be worried the leaves might dry out 'roasting' them.

If steaming in a roasting pan or dutch oven, I'd just add a few minutes to the cooking time to make up the difference between the elevated temps in a pressure cooker.

I was going to oil them all over, for even cooking, toss some rosemary leaves here and there and try an experiment. I will leave some artichokes intact, so the leave should protect the inner flesh and others I will cut off the tops of the old/hard leaves and oil well. I am in debate as to which temperature to use. What do you think?

Start off at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes, then reduce to heat to 350.

Or just roast at 375 degrees, which my mother always roasted hard veggies. But artichoke is not really a hard veggie, is it? It's innards are soft, right?

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Fools

That sounds really good.

I will definitely try this!

I messed it a bit though. You would wait to add the heavy cream and rue until after the flambe - you want that brandy alcohol cooked out before you add anything to thicken the sauce.

@Fly - What a disaster! So what I did was bought three artichokes on sale (that was good, they are so inexpensive) and I pulled back the first layer of leaves then cut off 1 inch off the tops. Now I didn't open up the other leaves and I did not cut off the tips of the leaves because I wanted to see if I could roast them without too much prep work.

I set the oven to 400 degrees F, oiled them all over with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary leaves, placed them into a small roasting pan, covered them with a tin foil tent and let them roast for around an hour and half. Disaster!

Anyway, it is obvious that the temperature was too high and they were in the oven for way too long. But, for the little bit of eats you get from an artichoke, to me, it is not worth all that energy. I will continue to buy artichoke hearts packed in oil in jars when the artichoke mood strikes.

Thanks and good eating.

a reply to: InTheLight

I honestly think if you do them in a covered dutch oven with steam, or better yet a pressure cooker, you'll have a lot better luck with them. You really only need to cook them at about 250 degrees for 13 minutes. So you were just a little under twice the temp for 2x the duration.

They really are a treat. I hope you don't give up yet.