I'm All Choked Up ~ Artichokes Braised with Lemon and Garlic

People are weird about artichokes. They either love them or hate them. No in-between state. I believe it has something to do with their hard spiky exterior and large floral shape: difficult and strange to cook and eat.

And it seems that Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Whatever, often don't know what the hell to make of them; unlike the Greatest Generation who were comfortable with just about any struggle. For them, handling an artichoke was nothing, in the face of the Great D, war, food rations and at home births. I've seen my grandparents, and parents, fearlessly stuff them into pots of boiling water, paying no mind to their giant thorns, only to suck off every bit of meat those leaves hardly had to offer. And it made sense to us, because who could resist something drenched in drawn butter? For my brothers and I, it was just a vehicle for melted salty butter...

But as weak as we may be, by comparison, there are still many brave-ish souls trolling the farmers market, ready to take them on.  And 'take them on' is the only attitude. You must take them on with the mindfulness of a skilled cook. You will need a solid and secure cutting board, not one of those flimsy chopping mats that resemble wax paper; and a long serrated knife for confident sawing.

Now that I've terrified you, and maybe even frightened myself, remembering all of the puncture wounds I've endured, I would love to share the most beautiful, simple, yes, I like that word and mean it, recipe. It's a simple water bath of halved lemons, garlic cloves, thyme and bay leaf, and copious amounts of sea salt and black peppercorns. The artichokes are submerged whole and weighted down by a plate and tea towel; or cut in half, then rubbed with lemon juice and simmered stovetop. For the really fearful, I suggest starting with the smaller artichokes. They are less hard and less spiky, making it much easier for your knife to carefully saw off the tips of the chokes.

Personally, I love them more than I fear them. I love them with butter. I love them with garlic aioli. I love them with herbed bread crumbs and pecorino... But mostly I just love them braised: as noted above and below. Take a look, and watch your damn fingers.

Artichokes Braised in Lemon and Garlic

pot of water

1-2 # of small or large artichokes

a halved head of garlic, or 12 cloves

a small bunch of thyme

a few bay leaves

three lemons, halved

a flat heavy palmful of sea salt

a tight palmful of black peppercorns 

spring means artichokes... purple and green... large and small... buy them all... haha...

give them a healthy rinse...

squeeze the juice of one lemon into a bowl of water and set aside...

carefully saw off the tips, creating a flat top, and rub with half a lemon to stop them from turning brown... watch your fingers...

remove the hard spiky inedible leaves...

and trim the stem a little, always rubbing with lemon wherever you cut... 

and submerge in the bowl of lemon water...

prepare a pot of water on the stove with two halved lemons, squeezed of their juice, and the garlic, herbs and salt and peppercorns...

add your chokes to the pot... heck, i even add the more tender picked-off leaves...

 to submerge whole chokes, cover the pot with a clean tea towel and weigh with a dinner plate... 

for small chokes, just stir while cooking, as seen here...

braise on  medium to low-burn, for about 20 minutes.... more for larger chokes...

they are ready when a pairing knife pushes through the flesh with ease... 

remove them from the liquid and eat straight away with melted butter, or toss with lemon, olive oil and garlic, or...

just eat as is...

or make an antipasta with Parmigiano Reggiano, the poached garlic cloves from the same pot, and castelveltrano olives... this was for the wine bar, and was a nice snack with a cold light beer...