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Hi, I am Gwen Schoen. Food Writer for the Sacramento Bee, and in the kitchen today, I want to show you how to prepare artichokes for cooking.
We are very fortunate in California because 75% of the artichoke crop is grown right in Castroville, which is in Monterey County. And so, we have artichokes pretty much around but the rest of the country only has them during peak season which is February and March.
So in Castro Valley, they grow these giant globe artichokes. Originally from Italy, the Italian immigrants brought them to California and planted them in the Monterey area. And when you buy them, you want to look for artichokes that have a very tight crown in the top and the leaves on the side should be really firm and not sure will dapped.
Sometimes this time of year, you find these little gray or slightly brown markings on the artichoke and that is actually “kissed by frost” as what the grower has called it. And what happens is when they frosted the artichoke, it converts little bit of the starch to sugar so it gets a little sweeter flavor. So this time of year when you can find these slightly kissed by the frost.
So to prepare it for cooking is really very simple. First of all, you want to take a sharp knife and cut off a little bit of the stem and the stem has a lot of good flavor in it too. So if it is possible, leave about half an inch or an inch of stem on the end of the artichoke. That will also remove this dried end of the stem that is left from when it was harvested.
So discard that, then take your sharp knife and remove the few of these drier woodier leaves that are around the outside and around the base. They have a good flavor but they are slightly dry and they have a kind of a pity feel in your mouth when you eat them.
So remove the few of those, just snap them off. Any of these that look split after you have done that. The easiest way to remove the thorns and artichoke is actually a thistle and this is the flower of the thistle. So, like most thistles they have lots of thorns on the ends of the leaves. So, what you want to do is remove those thorns so it makes a little easier to eat and you can do this with a sharp knife but I prefer to use kitchen shears that is a little easier.
So, just go through and cut off the sticker part of each of these little leaves on the choke. And when you get up to the crown where the leaves are more tightly compact together, you will need to cut it off with a knife. So when you get up to the crown part in here, take a sharp knife and just cut through the end of the artichokes so that you have all of the thorns are gone and you are not going to heat yourself when you eat it.
Then to remove the choke, just cut the artichoke in half and on the inside, you have the stem part right at the top of the stem is the heart of the artichoke which most people believed that is the best part. Then, you have this little hairy section in here called the choke and then you have all the tender leaves.
Make a cut around the bottom of the choke. You do not want to remove any of the heart because that is the best part. And once you have made a little cut there, take a regular teaspoon and just lift of that choke right out. And it came out perfectly clean.
Now you can dip this in lemon juice, add some water with a little bit of lemon juice add it to it to keep from turning brown. And you can add a little bit of lemon juice to the cooking water when you cook it.
Artichokes can be cooked several ways. You can drop them into boiling water or you can put them in a steamer basket, and it will take about 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the artichoke. These are really big, so they would take probably a full 20 minutes. You can also brush them with olive oil and put them on your outdoor grill and just grill them face down like that until they are nice tender and they have beautiful grill marks on them and that will make them caramelize a little bit which would gives them a wonderful flavor.
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