artichok

[ruud]

I think i will visit my italiaan neighbour,he surely knows what to do with it.

[ruud]

[Marymary]

I've got some very similar & I'm not sure what to do with them either, I tried boiling a little one but it was pretty tasteless.  I have left the rest to get bigger & am now confused about 'remove the choke' etc & what exactly to do with them.  ???

[saddad]

I wouldn't know where to start Rud
8)

[Rosyred]

I've been told to steam them and cut open and discard the centre woolly bit and dip in leaf in vinegette dressing bit fiddling really.

[Jeannine]

Soak them in salt water to remove any visitors, then simmer them  in salted water till a fork stuck in the centre finds them fairly soft. Serve them with a small dish of melted butter, first you peel off a side leaf,some times called scales or bracts, hold by it's tip and  dip in the butter, still holding the tip bite the side that was fastened on the plant and sort of pull it out again,with your teeth together, the  the hard part will pull away and the soft edible bit will scrape off between your teeth and stay in your mouth, trust me in can be done quite delicately, remove each bit one at a time and repeat, eventually they will all be gone and you will be left with the centre bit, the choke, eat that , it is all edible.You can make Hollandaise sauce if you prefer rather than butter.

..and that's how we do it !!

XX Jeannine

[dandelion]

Yes, Jeannine's method for the big ones. As for baby artichokes, I just slice the top off and remove the outer scales, then pan fry them halved or quartered with garlic and olive oil. Add a squirt of lemon juice and enjoy  :D!

See Supersprouts picture on this thread:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,20650.0.html

[ruud]

Thanks dandelion for the thread,that was just what i was looking for.

[Garjan]

They look great!
I plant artichokes every year and every winter I lose them because of frost. This year was the first year they survived - probably because there was no real frost -and I was looking forward to a first harvest.
And then it started raining. Not as much as in the UK, but still a large amount of water fell from the sky. And I lost my plants as there growing point just turned to mush.

In Dutch weather conditions, how do you keep your plants this healthy, Ruud?
Did you sow yours or did buy plug plants? I'm really curious as I love artichokes and would like to grow my own.

[isbister]

The choke is all the hairy stuff in the centre, don't eat that it'll make you choke, below that is the solid fond which is the best bit

[Kea]

I just read somewhere that if you put a paper cup (can we still get those or are they all polystyrene now!?) over it to hold the bracts together while it gets bigger. Not sure how it works.

[antipodes]

Hmm I can tell you the French way if you like (bigger ones). Break off the stem at the very base of the flower and cut off the couple of straggly leaves just at the base. I cook mine in the pressure cooker, about 25 or 30 mins once it whistles. Plain water, a little vinegar added. Once they are cooked, like them cool off a bit (they stay warm inside a fair while) as lukewarm they are nicer.
Make a vinaigrette with a dessertspoon of Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, 3 dessertspoons of wine or cider vinegar (stir that together) and then 9 dessertspoonfuls of oil (I use olive and sunflower mixed). It should be a thickish sauce.
Take off the leaves one by one, dip the soft end in the sauce and use your teeth to slide off the flesh. You don't eat the whole leaf!! Just the tender whitish flesh at the end. It's messy and makes lots of watse but is delicious. Once you get to the inner leaves they will be thin, no flesh on them. Pull off these leaves (they will come off like a little hat) and there you have a hairy centre (choke) - use a butter knife to prise this gently from the base of the artichoke. Then slice this base (heart) and dip into the sauce too.
Don't drink wine with artichokes, it has an enzyme that leaves a funny taste in your mouth. Save it for afterwards.
My kids love this as it is such a performance. We eat it as a starter with just some cold meat etc for main, as it is very filling! In France it is called the "poor man's dish"...because you have more once you have finished than what you started with, ha ha!

[pye]

Antipodes that's exactly how we eat them, your description is making my mouth water!  :P

I don't have room to grow them, wish I did, they're deffo in my top three veg list  ;D

[Melbourne12]

Another vote for a nice mustardy vinaigrette.  :)

We've harvested our first globe artichokes recently, and ate them with a quite ridiculous sense of achievement.  ;D  They were jolly nice, if quite a lot smaller than the ones you get in Brittany.

[thewoodle]

Yum! I'm so jealous, they look great!!

[OliveOil]

I'm so jealous tooooo... I went straight up to plot after reading this thread and took a look at my 4 month old arts and thought oh well next year! Lots of straw mulch i hope will help them survive.

All i know is i'm sick of bloomin peas!