MetaChat - I bought some artichokes while shopping for Mother's Day dinner tonight.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

13 May 2007

I bought some artichokes while shopping for Mother's Day dinner tonight. But I'm not quite sure what to do with them. Anyone have a simple and easy way of preparing them?→[More:] Tonight's menu will include light, poached salmon fillets on a bed of vegetables, as well as basil risotto. I'm thinking of using the 'chokes as a starter. Please hope.

post by: phoenixc at: 13:37 | 13 comments

Chop off stem. Steam for 40 minutes. Melt some butter. Dip leaves in butter when consuming them.

posted by muddgirl 13 May | 13:46

Add lemon and garlic to the butter if you want to get really fancy.

And now I'm craving artichokes...

posted by occhiblu 13 May | 13:58

Thanks ladies! It sounds so easy, I wonder why I was ever scared of them. Maybe because they seemed so exotic? I bought them on a whim - they were 4 for .99 - which seems really cheap to me, so I figured if I messed up, it wouldn't be a big hit. ;)

Do I have to do any other preparation besides cutting off the stem? In some of the pictures I've seen, the tips of the outer leaves are cut - is this necessary, or just for presentation?

posted by phoenixc 13 May | 14:05

I think it's just for presentation -- my mother never bothered with it. It does keep you from pricking yourself with the leaves, which is nice, but it's a mega pain in the ass, which isn't so nice.

posted by occhiblu 13 May | 14:56

I trim the leaves - just cut the tips of each leaf off with kitchen scissors. It takes maybe 40 seconds, tops.

posted by iconomy 13 May | 15:01

I think that cutting off the top of the artichoke was so that it sat in the steaming basket flatly, and so it would "steam open", or something. I never do it.

posted by muddgirl 13 May | 15:32

I ended up cutting the tips since the ends had prickly thorns which I hadn't noticed at first.

posted by phoenixc 13 May | 15:38

my grandmother would always boil them, and shove garlic cloves between the leaves, then drizzle with oil and grind pepper.
So good!

posted by kellydamnit 13 May | 15:40

When you steam/boil them leave the lid off. There's some kind of sulfery gas in there that you want to go away, that way they'll stay brighter green.

posted by StickyCarpet 13 May | 16:21

They're exotic because they don't transport well and are mostly grown in in the US in Castroville (trivia: Marilyn Monroe was a beauty queen there). If you live in that area, you can get them way cheaper and fresher.

posted by plinth 13 May | 20:28

And don't forget to boil/steam the stem, too. I love to eat the stems.

posted by small_ruminant 13 May | 21:20

And the 40 minutes is just an estimate- they're done when you can stick a fork in the bottom of the artichoke without too much trouble. You don't want it totally mush, but you do want it fork-able.

posted by small_ruminant 13 May | 21:22

Thanks all! I steamed them for 35min, which turned out to be a bit too long, I think, because they seemed a little too soft to me. Also, I made a lemon-garlic butter sauce for dipping which my mom loved.

The artichokes were a miss with my brother but a hit with my mother, as she had 2 (hers, and my bro's)

StickyCarpet: I didn't leave the lid off but left it askew so that the steamy gas could escape but I guess it wasn't enough because boy was it stinky when the lid came off at the end.

posted by phoenixc 14 May | 09:24

← So, how was your weekend? || Happy Mothers Day [YouTube] →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN