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All choked up
12 May 2010
Depending upon where you live, Spring has sprung, or is at least very close to it. There is a freshness to everything. That most definitely includes what I serve at home, and what I offer for menus to clients wanting to cater their spring gatherings. Along with that freshness is an almost intrinsic need of mine to mimic the eye pleasing ready-for-market items on display. This is where artichokes come to mind.
Admittedly, common globe artichokes can be intimidating. Once you overcome that, however, you may find out how perfectly wonderful and worth the effort this intriguing vegetable is. Yes, they can be unattractive, especially with darkened tips of their leaves, but that shouldn’t fool you either. The growers have dubbed these ‘frost kissed’ artichokes, and there are claims that their flavor is superior to the much prettier ones that were unaffected by the cold. Having never conducted any sort of taste analysis on these, I couldn’t even begin to offer an opinion. I just know that I adore artichokes, kissed or not. I enjoy the canned hearts and bottoms, marinated hearts in a jar, and although I’ve never used them, frozen artichoke hearts are probably acceptable for casseroles. My attraction is to the fresh ones, though. I seem to find something esoteric in the picking out of a few pretty ones. I bring them home, admire their beauty, then take on what some may deem a challenge of preparing them. Snipping the thorny leaves, cutting off the stem (if you’re lucky enough to get them with a stem, you can use it, too. The stems have the same flavor and texture as the bottoms.) Not that it’s a rule, but I find myself trying to snip the prickly tips off the leaves as neatly as possible, thus creating an attractive staggered pattern. Rub half a lemon all over, and they’re now ready for the pot.
Steam them in water with lemon juice (the juice of half a lemon should be fine) for approximately 45 minutes, until they’re tender. If you do them too long they will fall apart. Remove them from the pot, and either serve with butter for dipping the ‘old fashioned’ way (well, that’s the simple way my mother and I would enjoy them), or let them cool enough to be handled for another preparation. I happen to have a weakness for stuffed artichokes, and the recipe I concocted a couple of years ago just knocked my socks off. If you ‘re familiar with stuffed artichokes, a common way to serve them is whole, with a bread crumb based stuffing in between the leaves, and then baked again. Essentially, it just becomes a slightly messier way to eat steamed artichokes, only without dipping in anything. That style having bored me, I got creative.
I prep the artichokes as above, only, instead of keeping them whole, I split them in half, vertically. This not only makes it much easier to remove the choke, but also makes it a very convenient vessel for stuffing. Like mushrooms, you can pretty much use anything you desire as a stuffing in these, and I pretty much have done just that.
Another preparation of fresh artichokes I had never done until recently is to roast them. Honestly, I’m almost ashamed of myself for not having prepared them like this before, as it seems like a no brainer to try. Why wouldn’t roasting work as well for these as it does for all the other vegetables? I roast them, and dip them in a lemon and garlic infused olive oil, and serve as an appetizer. There’s a simplicity to this that I adore, and a sublime effect to the senses having the ability to transport me to an al fresco dining experience somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Here are the recipes for both preparations to add to your arsenal of out of the ordinary vegetables.
Stuffed Artichokes
(8 Servings)
- 4 fresh artichokes (trimmed, rubbed all over with lemon, steamed 45 mins., halved vertically, chokes removed)
- 1 lb. sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ c chopped fresh basil
- ¼ c chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ c finely chopped onion
- 1 ½ c fresh bread crumbs, + ½ c dry, seasoned stuffing mix
- ¾ c grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
- ¾ c shredded Mozzarella
- ¼c chopped sun dried tomatoes
- ¼ c chopped Kalamata olives
- ¼ c currants or golden raisins
- 1 egg, beaten, with 2-3 T Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ t nutmeg
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Brown sausage. Half way through browning, add onion and garlic. Add chopped herbs. When sausage is thoroughly cooked, add bread crumbs, cheeses, tomatoes, olives, currants and beaten egg mixture. If extra moistening is needed, add olive oil.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place artichoke halves in baking dish. Fill each artichoke, sprinkle with extra crumbs, and drizzle with olive oil. Cover with foil, bake 20-25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake 10-15 minutes more. Serve with lemon wedges.
May be prepared up to baking no more than 1-2 days ahead - or - baked up to 2-3 days ahead and reheated.
Variations
Substitute crab or cooked shrimp for the sausage, and leave out the currants. If using something delicate like lump crabmeat, fold it in gently at the end, before filling artichokes. If using seafood for this, advance preparation is NOT recommended.
Instead of sausage, use mushrooms.
Bind mixture with mascarpone, cream cheese, ricotta, or even cottage cheese.
Use smoked Mozzarella for half of the plain.
Roasted Artichokes with Lemon & Garlic olive oil
Cut the artichoke in quarters, rubbing with lemon with each cut. Clean out the choke, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt. Add 8-10 unpeeled garlic cloves to the pan and roast in a 400 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. When the artichokes are looking quite dark, even charred on the tips of the leaves, they should be ready. Squeeze out the roasted garlic into a ¼-½ cup of the olive oil, grate in the peel of an entire lemon, heat it up slightly in the microwave. Stir and give a grinding or two of black pepper.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Pull leaves off and dip in oil.
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