Foodie Friday: Stuffed Artichokes Demystified

Stuffed Artichoke 2012

When I was about five, I was watching a kid’s show called, Wonderama. Are you old enough to remember this show? Well, they had a segment called, “Mystery Item.” and the kids had to guess what it was. On this particular day the mystery item was an artichoke. I called to my mom, “Can you believe it an artichoke? Who doesn’t know what an artichoke is?” I was shocked at how few kids know what it was, never mind how to eat it. So if you were one of those kids that was sadly not exposed to the wonders of artichokes read on and I will demystify them for you.

STUFFED ARTICHOKES DEMYSTIFIED

by Diane Balch

prep time: 20 minutes servings: 4

4 large artichokes

2 eggs

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (remove if making meatless)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

pinch salt and pepper

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1 cup dry white wine

2 cups bread crumbs (home made is best you can use Aleia's gluten-free Italian bread crumbs)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

6 cups of water

1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

1) Cut off the top and the stem of the artichoke. Remove any dark leaves. Trim any leaves that are very spiky. 

Artichoke before it has been cut.

Top and stem removed.

2) Pry open the artichoke. Create space between the leaves so stuffing can fit all around.

Opened artichoke.

3) In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs with the anchovy paste. Add Parmesan, garlic, parsley,  salt and pepper to the mixture, incorporate.

4) Mix bread crumbs into egg mixture.

5) Divide bread crumb mixture into 4 equal parts.

6) Open up each artichoke and stuff it with a quarter of the bread crumb mixture.

Stuffing the artichoke.

7) Put the stuffed artichokes in a large sauce pan.

Artichokes in large sauce pan.

8) Add water and wine, 1 tablespoon of salt, and olive oil to the sauce pan. This liquid should submerge about 3/4 of the artichokes.

9) Put a lid on the pan and bring it to a boil. Lower heat to medium and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Check that most of the artichokes are submerged with water. Every 15 minutes you may have to add more water. 

10) The artichokes are cooked when you can easily scrap the bottom of the inside of a leaf off with your upper teeth. 

Eaten leaves.

11) Continue to eat the leaves like this until you get to the center. The delicate leaves you can eat whole. When you get to the spiny part that connects to the base of the artichoke remove this with a spoon and discard it. The soft base of the artichoke is the heart. Enjoy it whole... it is the best part. 
copyright 2012

The underside of these leaves are spiny.

Removed top leaves, exposing spiny area.

 vegetarian, Italian
http://verygoodrecipes.com/italia

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