HOW TO PREPARE
WHOLE ARTICHOKES
START
- Wear Latex Gloves to keep your skin free of the artichoke's bitter raw fluids, which have a
way of tainting any other food you touch after handling the artichokes - Fill a large bowl with cold water & squeeze a couple lemons into it & drop the lemon halves
into the water - You can keep 1/2 of a lemon off to the side in case you need it for rubbing on the cut sides
of the artichoke it can sometimes help slow browning due to oxidation
CLEANING DOWN TO THE HEARTS
- Some artichoke recipes call for just the tender hearts & stems, which means trimming the artichoke of every tough, inedible part
- Start by pulling off the outermost leaves until you get down to the lighter yellow leaves
- Then, use a serrated knife to cut off the top third or so of the artichoke with the same
& trim the very bottom of the stem - With a paring knife, carefully trim the top & sides of the artichoke
- Your goal is to cut in towards the heart, but you want to go slowly so that you don't
accidentally gouge the heart itself - There's not a clear demarcation between leaves & heart, the leaves sort of just merge & become the heart
- As soon as you don't see spaces between the leaves anymore, you're done with the cleaning
TRIM THE TOUGH OUTER PORTION OF THE STEM
- Use the paring knife to cut away the fibrous green exterior to reveal the light, tender cente
- Be careful since the curved portion where the stem transitions into the heart is difficult to navigate with a knife, making it easy to accidentally cut too deep
- If it takes you a while, feel free to rub any cut surfaces of the heart with the lemon half to
slow browning
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REMOVE THE CHOKE
- That's the furry stuff in the center of the heart that would have eventually bloomed into
a flower had the artichoke not been picked while still a bud - To do it, take a spoon & scrape away at the choke until you've scooped it out
- You may need to pick up your paring knife again to clean up the last bits
- What's left is the cleaned artichoke heart & stem, all totally edible & ready for cooking
- Drop your prepared heart into the lemon water & cover it with a clean dish towel soaked
in water - The towel helps keep the buoyant artichoke hearts under the water level & away from the air that causes browning
- Repeat with your remaining artichokes & then cook the hearts as desired
- If you've got a peeler, use it to make the artichoke cleaning process even easier
- Instead of using a paring knife, trim the heart (after pulling off the outermost leaves& cutting
off the top and bottom with a serrated knife) with the peeler - The benefits of the peeler is that
1. There's no risk of accidentally gouging the heart or stem with too deep a knife cut
2. Also, you can trim the whole thing a lot faster
3. Since the blade on peeler swivels, it can navigate the curved parts with ease
4. Unfortunately, other vegetable peelers will be more difficult to use here.
RIMMING FOR STEAMING
- Some people prefer a polished presentation, including removing the thorns from the leaf ends
& giving it an overall trim - Start as above, by using a serrated knife to cut off the top third of the artichoke
- Then, with a pair of good kitchen shears, cut off the top portion of each leaf to remove the thorny part
- If you want the artichoke to sit flat, cut off the stem right at the base of the artichoke
- If you want the stem, just trim it with a serrated or paring knife, then peel it with a paring knife
or a peeler - It won't sit flat, but it still steams well & tastes just as good
- Now the artichoke is ready for steaming.
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