Artichokes - how the smeg do I prepare and cook them??

[filthymindedvixen]

I have dozens on my allotment - I've never eaten them, let alone cooked them. What do I do with the spiny little beggars...

This is what I do.

Boil them whole (untill they are soft when you poke a knife in)

Pull the "leaves" off, and dip them in a dressing of vingar/ mustard/oil (made to taste)

Pull off the horrid hairy bit & throw away.

Eat the yummy "heart".

I suck the nice bit out of the leaves after dipping, and then throw away the rest of it.

which is the hairy bit??
The stalky?

that's what I do too - but I love them dipped in butter - yum yum !!

when you've eaten all the leafy bits inside is the choke which is soft hairy centre,cut the furry top off to reveal the heart

That's what I do. You can dip the leaves in a melted flavoured butter as an alternative, but I prefer a vinaigrette.

Separating the choke from the heart is the trickiest bit.

Hope you enjoy them. My favourite food btw! Very Jealous - haven't seen them in the shops for a long time - in fact, since France two years ago. Send me some cyber ones!

ds loves them too,dh not keen...they are heavenly

Lynette is correct. Boil them whole - usually takes about 35 mins. Tug the spiny leaves off one by one, and use your teeth to scrape the soft stuff off the inside of them (sounds disgusting but you can actually do it delicately!) You might want to dunk them in melted butter before you scrape. Eventually you will be left with a stalk and inch long hairy tuft on top, like a closed dandelion flower. Tug this off, they will come off quite easily, then on top of the stalk you have a blob of stuff. This is the heart, and the bit you have been eating when you scraped the leaves with your teeth. It's delicious. Some people eat artichokes with vinigrette but I think you can beat a pot of melted butter with salt and pepper in it! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm jealous of your allotment.

You can replace the word "boil" with "microwave" in Lynette's 18.15 post. Trial and error, but if you've got loads, worth a try as it is even more simple

That is my envious green artichoke face.

mmmmm... I'm quite excited now!

I've made some herby butter to dunk.

or steam, or even barbecue

ahh, have no miocrwave! [freak]

Jerusalem artichokes are lovely as well, but they don't look anything like normal artichokes! They look like very knobbly new potatoes and they taste all nutty and super delicious, but they have a bad reputation for making you fart. Actually, thinking about it...this is probably well founded but it is a SMALL price to pay as they are delicious. They are in season in winter for about five seconds. But enjoy your artichokes tonight. It's funny, the water that comes out of them after you've been boiling them all that time is like dark blue ink!

yy I like jerusalem artichokes. Am going to grow some next year!

can you eat cardoons ?

FMV - apparently they are thugs, you will never get rid of them from yr allotment. I have been warned by 2 separate Old Allotment Blokes, so I dare not grow them.

Thugs??? They are right at the back...

and, they are blooming loverly!

See what you all mean by the hairy bit though.

I really want to know whoever got the first one and thought ''you know, if I peel off all thosespiny sharpy bits, and boil for ages, and then just eat the tiny scrapings off the pointy leaves, then get rid of the all the furry stuff, that'll make a nice ol' meal!''

(Thugs refers to Jerusalem artichokes - it was a warning for your future)

Mmmmm artichokes, my favourite food.
here is Gordon Brown on how to prepare them

clearly by Gordon Brown I meant Gordon Ramsay, I expect Gordon Brown doesn't have the time to prepare artichokes right now.

the word smeg makes me want to heave tbh

sorry mercy...i was trying not to swaer

Artichokes

It's been a big day for me, losing my artichoke virginity....

mercy - if I owned a fridge with that name on it, I'd have to rearrange them ...ew !