Saturday 4 April 2009

Artichokes


Yesterday I was a the market and bought about a kilo of fresh artichokes because now was the time to try something new. They look delicious, but I must admit, this is not something we would like to eat again soon.

I had followed the very illustrative instructions from Simply Recipes, but either I did something wrong or this is simply not my kind of food.

I read somewhere that you have to taste something at least 11 times before you know if you like it or not, so I may try it again but prepared without all the outer leaves.

5 comments:

  1. The best part of the artichoke are the outer leaves (in my opinion). If you didn't like the taste of the flesh - then you simply don't like the taste of artichokes. Also if you liked the way the artichoke hearts tasted, you can just peel everything off after boiling them.

    By the way there is no need to cut off the spiny tops of each petal. You can just chop off the top of each artichoke and then boil then - letting them float in the water and then squeezing lemon juice into them as they float in the water. Slicing the tips of each petal is way too much work and I can see how it took away your desire to eat more.

    As for the dipping sauce, butter & lemon is standard but what kind of sauces do you like to eat potatoes with? I would dip them a sauce YOU LIKE that goes with potatoes or other starchy foods. :)

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  2. Well, I don't think there was so much taste or meat in the outer leaves. I will, however, give them a second chance.

    Today I used the two left over from yesterday, but peeled until the leaves were light green and then quartered. Sprinkeled with toasted garlic slices and a spicy (harissa) dressing they were quite nice in the green salad :-)

    You are right about the dipping sauce -
    Aioli is quite nice (but a bit greasy to my taste). I prefer dips that er more fresh like those on a youghurt base.

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  3. You might make a dip with yogurt, garlic and other flavorings you like a lot.

    The artichoke as you mentioned does not have a strong flavor so it will just take on the flavor of your favorite dipping sauce. :)

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  4. I found this which is a different way of eating artichokes: http://lucullian.blogspot.com/

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  5. That looks very interesting, thanks :-)

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