Artichokes are one of my favorite foods. A lot of people don't cook them at home because they think they are a lot of work. When you order them at restaurants they are peeled, perfectly cooked, and artfully turned. But in reality you don't need to work that hard.
I grew up eating stuffed artichokes. My Aunt Lucy made them whenever we went to Pittsburgh or she came to NYC to visit. Aunt Marie and I loved them. After Aunt Lucy passed away Uncle Alex would make them for us when we came to visit. He didn't trim them or dig out the chokes but they were still delicious, we just had to do a little more work at the table. When I worked in restaurants I spent hours peeling and trimming baby artichokes. We would braise them and cut them into slivers and you were lucky to get one whole flower on your plate. They were delicious but the portions were tiny.
Now when I stumble across fat, weighty artichokes at the market I use my pressure cooker. I cook them at high pressure for 7-9 minutes, depending on their size, and they are perfectly cooked. You could make a dipping sauce or drizzle them with melted butter but I like them straight. There's something almost meditative about scraping your teeth across each leaf and slowly working your way towards the meaty heart at the center. These were fat purple beauties. As you can see in this picture, I started to trim them and realized I was going to lose a whole lot of the good stuff to the garbage can. Sometimes leaving things alone gets you a better yield. I have to admit that I'm the kind of person who nibbles on the outside leaves while I'm finishing up things in the kitchen but if I leave them all on there than nobody ever knows the difference.
Years Past
