About Me
I'm a Melbourne boy, hailing from St Kilda with one ex, one current wife and four kids. Love the outdoors and making new discoveries. I cook a lot at home (cheers from wife) and do some preserving, mostly jams, pickles and fruit liqueurs. This is the diary of a cooking journey.

My Complete Profile

Recent Posts
Enchiladas
Chocolate Covered Misery
Nicely Does It!
Broad Beans - It's Spring
Rockpool Bar & Grill
Slavinks
Father's Day
Here Kitty
Blue Corn Prawns & Mexican Style Salad
Fooled You

Links
1001 Dinners 1001 Nights
A Few of My Favourite Things
Abstract Gourmet
Apellation Australia
Becks and Posh
BurgerMary ATX
Cook (almost) Anything at least once
Cooking Down Under
Cook sister!
Cooked And Bottled In Brunswick
David Lebovitz
Deep Dish Dreams
Chef Paz
Chubby Hubby
Eating Melbourne
Eating With Jack
essjay eats
Food Lover's Journey
Gosstronomy
Grab Your Fork
I Am Obsessed With Food
I Eat Therefore I Am
Iron Chef Shellie
Just Desserts
Kalyn's Kitchen
Kitchen Wench
Lobstersquad
Matt Bites
Melbourne Gastronome
My Kitchen in Half Cups
Nola Cuisine
Not Quite Nigella
Nourish Me
Seriously Good
Souvlaki For The Soul
Stone Soup
Sunnybrae
Syrup and Tang
Steve Don't Eat It!
That Jess Ho
The Elegant Sufficiency
The Perfect Pantry
The View From My Porch
Thyme for Cooking
Tomato
Tumeric & Saffron
tummy rumbles
What I Cooked Last Night
where's the beef
WhiteTrashBBQ
Vicious Ange

Food Blog Resources
Food Blog S'cool
I Eat I Drink I Work
Kiplog Food Links

Food for Thought
Autism Victoria
Autism Vox
forget me now
Lotus Martinis
MOM - Not Otherwise Specified
St Kilda Today

Friday, September 21, 2007
Artichokes
I'm not sure why I like artichokes, but I do.

For one thing, you throw more into the compost bin than you eat. The other thing is the weird way artichokes alter flavours of other foods and liquids. For instance, try drinking some water directly after eating an artichoke and it will taste slightly sweet. This is the reason why the vegetable is generally shunned by wine connoisseurs, some normally fine wines taste frankly quite awful when partnered with them.

But the thing that really gets me about them is, I never really know when to stop stripping those tough outer leaves. My pile of compost material gets so large that I just stop, but it always seems that I leave a couple of tough leaves still attached. Those countless times I've watched other people peeling and trimming artichokes and yet it seems I'm no closer to the holy grail of a perfectly tender artichoke with no tough bits.

There was one time I came close. It was a bit later in the season and I was using the smaller side buds, which incidentally aren't as strongly flavoured as the main choke. You don't always see these smaller specimens, but they are worth looking out for, try Italian greengrocers, that's where I found them. Anyway, when these buds were cooked, there were only a couple of inedible bits.

I kind of suspect that tough bits are just a part of the artichoke experience, but I'm not really sure, so I'm asking, is there a way to tell when you are trimming up the artichoke that only tender leaves are left? Also, I would love any links to any killer artichoke recipes, or if you have a recipe not posted, would you be kind enough to pass it on?

Off to the compost bin now, we had just four artichokes last night and filled a plastic shopping bag with detritus.
 
  posted at 8:07 am
  8 comments



8 Comments:
At 9:35 pm, Blogger Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

My favorite way to eat them is still just steamed, pulling the leaves off one by one and dunking them in melted butter. To prepare, you trim the stem so the artichoke sits flat, then pull down the outer leaves one by one, towards the stem, letting them break off where they want to. Usually after two rows or so, the leaves stop breaking, and that's where to stop.

 
At 11:09 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love this post Neil! My relationship with artichokes seems to be the same. I can hear a small voice in my head saying "do I stop removing leaves yet, do I, do I? Oh, none left..."

 
At 11:06 pm, Blogger Anh said...

Neil, I absolutely adore artichoke. My rule when preparing them is "what is green is tough and what is yellow is edible". But sometimes I do feel like I throw so much out....

I have heard that steamed artichoke leaves are nice. Wonder how they taste?

 
At 3:12 am, Blogger MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I think I'm in your boat. I love them but cooking them always seems a mystery to me; so I seldom try cooking them but order them out every chance.

 
At 2:25 pm, Blogger neil said...

Hi lydia, and thanks. I think that I've pull off a few more than two rows! There is a bit of yin & yang about your prefered method of preparing them...steam-yin, butter yang.

Hi duncan, I had the feeling I wasn't alone in all this and could quite easily finish up with not much at all.

Hi anh, I've noticed that change in colour too, I'll pay more attention to it now.

Hi tanna, maybe yours is the best way to go!

 
At 12:02 am, Blogger Jeanne said...

I never really ate artichokes until I met my husband, who adores them. They do tend to do the weirdest things to your tastebuds - I also find they make me salivate. Little more info than you wanted, I'm sure!

As for recipes, I have not made these, but had them in Rome earlier this year - Jewish-style artichokes. You flatten them and deep-fry them - and let me asure youi it is delicious!
http://www.recipeland.com/recipe/820/ The most unusual way I have ever seen an artichoke served.

 
At 11:16 am, Blogger neil said...

Hi jeanne, well, I won't die from curiousity, that's for sure! The recipe sounds yum and I love the way they describe the artichokes as opening up like roses.

 
At 2:29 am, Blogger christine said...

You are definitely not alone. I am so intimidated by artichokes and preparing them from scratch that I've never actually done it. So this is my confession for the day, I've only ever used canned or bottled artichoke, how sad is that! But ok, you've just inspired me, I'm dying to try it steamed and buttered now. :)

 

Post a Comment

<< Home



Search


Recipe Categories
Soups
Salads
Vegetables
Poultry
Pork
Beef
Cakes & Desserts
Miscellaneous

Archives
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
May 2009
June 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
July 2012

Miscellaneous
AUSTRALIAN FOOD BLOGGERS
Prev ~ List ~ Random ~ Join ~ Next
Site Ring from Bravenet


Site Feed

counter easy hit

Credits
Blog Design by:


Image created by:
Ximena Maier

Powered by:


Photos, Original Recipes, and Text - (C) Copyright: 2005-2010
At My Table by Neil Murray, all rights reserved.
You may re-post a recipe, please give credit and post a link to this site.

Contact Me
Neil Murray

Follow messytable on Twitter