jfmorris Will you share how to prepare artichokes the way you do. We have never had artichokes before but have really liked your photos of them from your cooks. We finally found some for sale here after looking for them the past several months but they seem rather small.
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so there are primarily 2 types of artichokes sold at most places, Jerusalem and Globe (one is cone shape, one is ball shape). Both can be prepped and cooked the same way. I would suggest you stick to the standard steaming prep if you've never had them. Grilling can be hit or miss if you don't know what you are doing and you won't know if you did it wrong
When buying, you want to loosely squeeze them a few times. They should be firm and squeak. If they are sold by the lb make sure they don't have super long stems, most prep only leaves 2-ish inches max of stem if any. Stem works great for making soup but is super stringy.
For steaming I just go roughly 45 minutes. The first few bottom leaves you will discard anyway so you see if they easily pull off. If it takes effort, they aren't done, if it instantly comes off it's probably overdone.
Serve with a sauce. Some use garlic butter, I use mayo with a bit of lemon juice and random spices like dill or cayenne... if doing any sauce other than butter you don't want it runny.
For eating you just pull of leaves and scrape the "meat" off from roughly the middle of the leaf to the bottom thicker part which may fully come off. When you get to the thin purple-ish leaves, pull the whole set off exposing the choke, bite or cut only the white bottom thick part of this bunch of leaves. Scoop the choke (hairs) out or use a knife to cut it off, should be a semi-flat very wide cone shape. Now you're left with the best part, the heart
I have a few different methods for grilling that I've got from here and other places, I generally prefer steamed but if done perfect grilling does enhance the experience. There are also boiled recipes, but I don't really like boiled artichokes.
Over to Jfmorris for his prep
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This either you love em or you hate em.
My wife and her family demolish artichokes, try as I may I've never developed a taste for them. -
Good write up!
I never had or saw an artichoke until I got married. My wife grew up in California, and brought her taste for artichokes to Alabama with her when she moved here during high school. Her family always boiled them. I added the grilling step a few years ago, and now she doesn't want them any other way.
I need to try only grilling. We don't steam as I don't really have a good way to steam 4-5 artichokes, but I may look for a way to try that too.
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Donw I will be very glad to help.
I use artichokes usually from Walmart, which appear to be the "globe" variety. They are usually the "Ocean Mist" brand, like these:
My prep method is very simple. First, I rinse them, and if the stem part is really long, trim it some with a knife, as it takes up space in the pot. While some steam, I actually put them in a stock pot on the stove, and bring them to a boil, allowing them to boil for about 10 minutes with the lid on the pot. Then I turn the pot off, let them cool, and fish them out with some tongs, and set them in a pan on the kitchen counter to cool enough for me to handle.
The next step is to SPLIT them with a sharp knife - I use a chef knife - on a cutting board. I put the stem up, and slide down the center of the stem and through the artichoke, splitting it.
In the center of the artichoke is a fuzzy substance. I use a teaspoon to basically scoop just below the fuzz, and scoop it all out, scraping it off the artichoke heart. I wish I had a picture of this step, as without having had an artichoke, you won't know what I am talking about. Regardless - don't scoop out the heart - the base of the artichoke, as you want to eat that part. Just clean the fuzz off both halves of the split artichoke.
You are now ready to grill. To prep them for grilling, I brush them with either melted butter or olive oil, and sprinkle with seasoned salt, on both inside and outside.
Heat the grill to medium-high heat, and grill for 4-5 minutes per side, rotating 90 degrees after a couple of minutes if you are going for grill marks.
To eat the artichoke, put it on your plate flat (cut) side down, and simply peel the petals off one by one. Only the tip of each petal will be edible, and you dip it in dipping sauce of your choice (butter, ranch, even Duke's Mayo, etc), and eat, discarding the hard part of each petal. You basically just pull the tip of the petal through your front teeth, scraping off the soft edible tip. Once you've peeled off all the petals, just pick up the heart by the steam, and eat it.
The website I referenced has a good video on grilling artichokes. One thing you will notice is they say you can "pre steam and then grill" or just grill. I've not tried it without boiling first. The nice thing with my process is I can bag up a bunch of split artichokes and grill them the next day for a dinner or something.
Another thing to note is that in many of the pictures, they have gone to a lot of trouble to use scissors to cut the end of each petal off. Not sure why they go to this effort, its not something I've ever done.
Anyway, good luck, and bon appetite!
JimLast edited by jfmorris; July 16, 2020, 08:40 AM.Comment
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the snipping is mostly a restaurant thing carry over. I assume its because Americans think everything on the plate is edible and we as a society are quick to escalate things to court On overly large chokes I WILL slice off the top portion, not for safety but I feel it lets the heat source into the center quicker than not, even if it's not true... that's what I do
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Great thread! I haven’t done grilled artichokes yet, but if I were to grill them (only) I would wrap them in alu foil and cook them for 15-20-ish minutes before unwrapping and grilling over direct heat.Comment
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Thank you and everyone for your help! jfmorris your explanation and the linked videos gave me a better idea on what to do, and what I’m looking at.Comment
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Anyone here try them with blue cheese and thyme compound butter?Comment
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