How do I cook a fresh, whole artichoke?!
How do I cook a fresh, whole artichoke?
Answers:
trim the stem, use a potato peeler to shave down the stem. Use kitchen sheers to cut the tips off. You now can either boil them or bake them or even cook them in the microwave. You can serve them with garlic butter, or cut them in half, scoop out the hairy looking stuff, and use the hearts for anything. You can take the leaves dip in the garlic butter and scrap it thru your teeth. There isn't much in those leaves but they are fun to eat.
Trim the nasty points
Boil
test the stalk with a fork for tenderness
There are many ways to cook artichokes, but I prefer to cook them in boiling water until the leaves become tender enough to eat. This usually takes at least 45 minutes. Then you can serve them with a nice dipping sauce.
http://www.ehow.com/how_426_cook-articho...
here is well explained with pictures and everything
The first person to eat an artichoke was a brave person, or perhaps very hungry. Cut a lemon in half. Cut the top inch off the arti and then pry the center leaves apart gently to get to the choke, a fuzzy barbed thing you don;t want to eat. With a spoon scrape the choke out and sequeeze lemon juice on any parts of the choke that are cut and exposed to air. If that is your only choke then saute a clove of fresh garlic in a pot, then add wine so that you have 1/2 an inch in the pan. Add fresh basil and mint if you have them. Put the arti in with the top down and put a lid on the pot. Cook till the bottom is relatively soften(poke with a knife).You may need to add some water if trhee wine gets low. I can't say the time b/c it depends on the size of your choke, but it will be a while.
When it is soft you can eat it leaf by leaf or stuff it and bake it. yum
First cut the very tips off of each leaf using kitchen scissors or sharp knife. I usually use a large sized rubber band to secure around the artichoke. Place in a deep pot of boiling water along with a bit of salt and garlic. Place a heavy round glass corning ware bowl on top to keep the artichokes down in the boiling water. Boil until the leaves can be pulled easily. For dipping i make a mixture of butter, lemon and garlic. Also a mixture of mayonnaise, lemon and parmesan cheese is good. Pull the leaves and dip the bottom ends into the prepared dip. When you get to the center...do not try to eat the spiny section. Then you will finally get to the heart. Oh soooo good!
How to Cook an Artichoke
1. If the artichokes have little thorns on the end of the leaves, take a kitchen scissors and cut of the thorned tips of all of the leaves. This step is mostly for aesthetics as the thorns soften with cooking and pose no threat to the person eating the artichoke
2. Slice about 3/4 inch to an inch off the tip of the artichoke.
3. Pull off any smaller leaves towards the base and on the stem.
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.
5. Rinse the artichokes in running cold water.
In a large pot, put a couple inches of water, a clove of garlic, 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 35 to 45 minutes or until the outer leaves can easily be pulled off. Note: artichokes can also be cooked in a pressure cooker (about 20 minutes cooking time).
How to Eat an Artichoke
Artichokes may be eaten cold or hot, but I think they are much better hot. They are served with a dip, either melted butter or mayonnaise. My favorite dip is mayo with a little bit of balsamic vinegar mixed in.
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.
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.
Cut all tips off. Spread the leaves. Stuff with seasoned breadcrumbs. Wrap in foil. Place in a pot with a lid with 2 inches of simmering water, cover, 45 minutes. Or wrap in foil and bake 1 hour 350. Take out, let cool. DELICIOUS
I grind up a few pieces of garlic and fresh Italian parsley in the food processor first. Then after I trim off the points at the top I stuff the parsley mix into the center of the chokes. Then they go into a large pot. Finally I drizzle each with just a bit of olive oil and them steam them on med/low heat for about 2 hours
I trim it first by snipping the pointy end off the leaves and trimming the stems. Steam them in H2O seasoned with lemon , s&p for about 30 mins. until a knife in the stem feels tender. Then I make a stuffing with ritz crackers, butter, celery and onion. Pop it in the oven at 350 for 20 mins or so until it gets golden. (maybe add some parm to that stuffing) The eating is such fun pull out a leave and scrape the stuffing with botttom of leave on your teeth. Yum. When your done, you get to the best part the artichoke, the heart. Scrape out the fuzzy part (the choke) and your left with a disk of deliciousness.
You're all kidding I hope. You shouldn't BOIL an arti. You should steam it. Here's how to do it right. In a large saucepan (one that has a lid) place 6 TBSPN lemon juice, 2 TBSPN Salt, 1 cup chicken stock, and 2 cloved garlic, crushed. Cut off the stem of the choke and the tips of the leaves. Also, cut off the top inch of the globe - this allows for more flavor to penetrate. Place the globe in the liquid, on top of one of those steaming baskets. You don't want it SITTING too much in the liquid. Now, cover it and turn to med heat. Let steam for 30 mins, or til tender by fork. If you boil it you will lose all flavor. ICK!
First of all, scrub the artichoke well. Then trim off the sharp points on the outer leaves (I use scissors or kitchen shears for this). Cut the stem off the bottom so it will sit level and cut just about an inch off of the very top. Fill a pot with water to about 1 inch depth. Insert steamer basket and put artichokes in steamer basket. Bring water to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and steam for about 15-20 minutes or until tender (insert a fork into the stem to check).