Artichokes

[cchavez]

Does anyone have a foolproof way to prepare them? DH and I love the grilled artichokes at Houstons. They are steams first and then finished off on the grill. We have tried them that way but they don't come out that great.

Also what about any good canned artichoke heart recipes. The easier the better. TIA!

[MinnieMouse]

I'm an artichoke purist. My family ate them growing up and I introduced them to my dh when we were dating and now he's a convert :-).

I just eat them steamed, no grilling, dipping each leaf into drawn butter w/ salt in it.

I used to use a french steamer and it took anywhere from 30min to an hour to steam them depending on the number and size of the artichokes. Now I have a pressure cooker and use that instead. Takes 10-20min now.

If you try and cook them in water(as opposed to steaming) they get waterlogged and soggy and most of the flavor leaves them.

Artichokes are completely steamed when you can VERY easily take the leaves off the bottom with little or no resistance.

My mom would occasionally stuff them with a combination of 4c bread crumbs and cheeses...but we always told her we liked them better plain.

HTH

Christine

[vpalmer]

I agree, steamed fresh artichokes are best!

However, there are tons of things you can do with canned or jarred artichoke hearts. They are wonderful on pizza. Red bell peppers, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and olives make the best pizza.

Other things I use them for are quiche and artichoke dip. I know there is more but that is all I can think of at the moment!

Veronica
Mom to Eva
Born on 6-12-03

[sdjeppa]

To grill our artichokes, we boil them in water with lemon juice and salt (just a little), then when they are done, we cut them in half, brush with olive oil, and put them on the grill! YUM, now I want some! We saw a show on foodtv called boy meets grill that did them that way, with roasted tomato vinigrette.

Jenny
DS Zachary born 9-27-03