I’ve had salads like that at italian restaurants, tasty enough but i feel like the artichoke flavor isn’t as pronounced as when it is cooked. And the shavings must be paper thin or it’s just hard and unpleasant.
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I think my use of garlic is similar to your use of garlic. Its just I like to saute them and the artichoke first to make them a bit more fragrant, and eventually when I add the tiny bit of water, that garlicky flavor will ‘steam’ into the artichoke. I use very small artichokes, and I eat the heart, and pick out whatever flesh that’s on the leaves.
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Am I the only one who nukes them?
Makes for a much quicker snack.
I’m sure growing them and just grabbing a few from the back yard each evening made that a lot more plausible.
Garlic butter is fine with me.
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That’s what I ended up doing with these, as I couldn’t find any steamer inserts for my pots. Quartered and then steamed in the microwave. It worked quite well.
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Well huh. Never heard of that before actually. How do you do it? Leave them whole…?
My parents are actually coming to visit me later this week and i asked them to bring me baby artichokes if they’re around! Haha, fingers crossed!
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I’d love to hear your parents’ assessments on what’s the best baby artichokes around that area. My pick is Andreotti Family Farm’s from Half Moon Bay. A good texture- everything else seems mushy by comparison.
And Andreotti’s pales compared to what my in-law grew at home one winter. Those were complex, fabulous with a great texture. Stupid me for not saving the seeds. I’ve not eaten better artichokes.
I’m not very good with the names of roads at all, but between Castroville and Santa Cruz there’s a two lane highway of sorts and somewhere in the middle off the road next to the artichoke fields is a rather large farmstand. Open year round it’s white building that has seen better days and they sell local produce including every variety of artichoke grown nearby.
Not especially close to my parents but we always stop there when driving by.
Much more convenient the downtown monterey farmers market always has great artichokes, and if they have baby artichokes they sell them in bags usually
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I’m guessing your still on hwy 1. Just past moss landing . Power plant that used to be. With the large smoke stack. No reason to go another way to monterey.
We trim off the top and the thorny part of the leaves and cook them upside down in a steamer that has water, lemon slices and smashed garlic cloves in the bottom. The dip is mayo, dijon mustard, crushed garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Yum! Unfortunately, I’ve noticed in the last few years that the chokes haven’t been nearly as good as they used to be in size and quality, and the price has gone way up too. Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just our local stores?
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Very little trimming in my family. Cut off the bottom of the stem, pull off a few of the smaller out leaves, slice in half long ways and boil in water about 50 minutes. You have to pull off each leaf in succession. No skipping ahead to the ones with more of the meaty deliciousness. Pull off a leaf, dip in a mix of mayo, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Dip and then Strip the lower, meaty part of the leaf on your bottom teeth. Work your way to the choke and scoop it out with a fork then enjoy the crown. You’ve earned it.
Buon appetito!
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I grew up eating them steamed and served with melted butter and still love them that way. I have done the baby ones halved, any choke removed, and braised in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and fresh mint – those are fabulous as long as I am fairly ruthless about getting rid of enough outer leaves. My favorite though is grilled: steam just shy of done, split, remove choke, and marinate in a very garlicky lemon vinaigrette until grilling for a few minutes each side, then pour the rest of the vinaigrette over the warm grilled artichokes and let sit or refrigerate till later. The second marinade makes a HUGE difference and also makes this a good make-ahead for a party. I like to serve with a sriracha mayo with just a titch of smoked paprika which picks up the smokiness of the artichoke.
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hah, we were mayo, but i love both mayo and butter together (first had that at a renaissance faire) for artichokes. grew up in L.A. but both my parents were from Bolivia.
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Yes, that’s it! Highway 1. Have you been there? Definitely stop if you’re driving by.
Not far there’s the turn to moss landing but take a sharp turn into the public parking lot and look for the locals selling what they caught earlier in the day from the back of a pickup truck- i swear that’s my dad’s favorite place in the entire county to buy fish.
Where are you located?
The “fresh” artichokes I usually see in grocery stores here in nyc come from Castroville in CA for the most part and look like crapola- not to mention are easily $2/ea. I think it’s just too much transit time.
In season i can find local artichokes at the farmers market but they must be a different variety than what I grew up with since they look very different
I know exactly where that’s at. And have bought fish there
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Just east of Sacramento, so not very far from the growing area. They’ve been 2.00-2.50 on sale and they’re kind of dry, with fibrous looking stems. We used to get fabulous meaty globe chokes during the season, but it’s been a while.
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Most recently, I used the instantpot (trimmed them up, left them whole, added lemon wedges to the water,) and stayed on the low end of the suggested time range. They turned out perfect and while they were cooking I had time to make the mayo and clarify the butter. It made a quick, easy dinner out of them.
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I love them with just about any mayo based dip or butter, but my mother always served them with a tangy mustard mayo sauce. She would mix about one part mustard to two parts mayo, then add a dash of vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Like a dijonnaise, except she used yellow mustard, never Dijon. I still prefer this sauce to any other - tastes like home!
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That’s really odd… and sounds like a lot of the sad artichokes i see!
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For the artichokes in my yard, which tend to be tougher than purchased chokes (perhaps because I’m often a bit late to pick) I steam whole with a significant portion of the stem on (or microwave if there is just one). I usually pull and eat all the leaves with a lemon garlic butter, but if I’m trying to be “healthy” I might make an olive oil, garlic mayo sauce. I usually save the plucked hearts for another meal, often sauteed in a pasta, or in a grain-based salad with sundried tomatoes and cheese.
For baby artichokes, my favorite is trimmed, halved, slathered with garlic, salt, and olive oil, and grilled.
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