Vegetable Four: Artichokes

For my fourth vegetable, I chose artichokes.  They've always intrigued me...nestled and pretty in the cooler of the produce section.  I've had them mixed into dips before, but those don't count...they come out of a can.  So naturally, I grabbed two of them and headed home to figure out how to cook these little beauties.

After a bit of research on the subject of cooking and eating artichokes I learned a couple of things.  First, you don't eat the whole thing...you don't even eat the whole leaf.  You are supposed to scrape the 'meat' of the leaf off by sliding the leaf between your teeth.  Second...those suckers have little sharp points on them.  That would certainly explain why I felt like I was juggling with rose bushes when I was putting them away.  So lesson learned...handle with care!

The most popular preparation seemed to be steaming the artichoke whole and dipping the leaves in a butter sauce and eating them as mentioned above.  Steamed...butter sauce...I'm in.

The first step to preparing your artichokes is to snip those pesky sharp points off of the leaves using kitchen shears.  If you don't want to do this, apparently it's not necessary since they should get tender after being steamed...but I wasn't about to take any chances.  Plus, the snipped edges look prettier in my opinion and you know what they say...you eat with your eyes first!

So once the tips are snipped, rinse them well with cold water.  Fill a large pot with a couple of inches of water and add a steamer basket.  To the steaming water, for a little extra flavor, you can add lemon juice and minced garlic.  Place the artichokes, cut side up, in the basket.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and leave them alone for 25-45 minutes (depending on the size of the artichokes).

**note...I do not own a steamer basket.  Shame, shame on me, yes I know...but I don't.  So...I 'made' one by making two foil 'snakes' and forming a circle with them.  Just big enough to rest the artichokes in without submerging them in the water.**

Meanwhile, you can prepare a butter sauce for dipping.  For mine, I melted 1/2 stick of butter in the microwave.  Mix in 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp italian herb mixture, 1/2 tsp lemon juice.  Mix well and let it sit so the flavors can marinate.

Once your artichokes are tender, remove from the steamer.  Since you'll be handling them with your fingers, I'd recommend letting them cool for a few minutes.  While they cool, go ahead and zap the butter sauce in the microwave for about 10 seconds so it's nice and hot for dipping.

To be perfectly honest, this wasn't my favorite.  It was *okay*...not something I'll probably repeat.  I felt the artichokes were tedious to eat and while I love the flavor of butter, I'm quite certain that dunking my veggies in it is a bad idea.  So...I cooked, I tasted...and I'm moving on...  I would still encourage you to try this recipe or at the very least try this vegetable...you may like it.  I always encourage a little adventure in the kitchen...it doesn't always end in a rave review!