So I’m sure you guys wonder how this one come up with the recipe. Well for me, it’s typically something that I’ve been doing for quite sometime. All of these stuffs and having them in the kitchen, all these mumbo jumbo, I’m trying this, I’m trying that. So finally then, I pull it out together and I type it along.
One of the recipes I have been dying to share with you that I know you’re going to love is a stuffed artichoke recipe. Now, here’s the deal with artichokes. I know that people won’t buy them in the store and kind of put their nose up to them like, “Oh! All the muss and fuss, too much pop and circumstance,” but it’s really not once you have a taste of these glorious babies, you are going to be making this for your family, it is so delicious. Your whole house will smell incredible. I’ve got it all typed up and ready go for you and now, we shall just go out and make it.
So like I said, you see these gems in the store and I really don’t want you to walk by them anymore. Next time, pick up an armload of them. However, many people in your family—I like to prepare one artichoke per person even though we have kids, each one of them can basically eat the whole thing.
So now comes the part, right. I will demystify all artichoke fear for you. This is so easy, so you’ve got this thing, right? And just start by peeling off all of these little leaves because you’re not going to end up eating these anyway so I just basically rip these off and then chop. Then, grab a serrated knife because I find it just works better when I’m cutting an artichoke. Cut the bottom right off. Now here’s what cool about these bottoms. You can actually peel these and slice them really thinly. Eat them just like carrot or a cucumber if you want to so don’t toss them in case you’re looking for something extra to nibble on.
Then, you basically look at your artichoke in thirds and you want to cut off the upper third. And you know, it takes like a tiny bit of muscle to get through it but you can do it. I know you’re strong and you know, you cut off this upper part and then, you’ve got all your wonderful little spininess left. And so you want to get rid off all of those little pokey beauties. And this is the part I usually have my kids help me with because they think this part is really fun to get rid off all of those. You don’t have to do this but I really recommend you do especially if you’ve got kids eating this with you because nobody want to get poked in the finger by a little thorny artichoke. And all you do is you cut these things off and then another tip I have to share because artichokes, the minute you start cutting them, they’ll start turning brown. So what I do is I keep a lemon right by me and I quarter it, and immediately after cutting the artichoke, I rub lemon on all of its little cut parts. See? As easy as that. That is how very simple it is to cut an artichoke. So I’m going to cut the rest of these up and then I’ll show you how we very simply cooked up.
So I have all of my artichokes beautifully cut and at this point, what I use is my Dutch oven and whatever you’ve got a great big pot and I set them all in the Dutch oven. I even throw a little bit of lemon in there with it. You can put garlic in there anything like that that you want and then I take a pie plate or some kind of plate that you’ve got that can handle the heat. And then put it on top to weight them down. You want the artichokes to be able to sink down so that they are really cook.
And at this point, you know, you’re just going to cook them for about 20 minutes because once they’re cooked, we’re going to take them out, take out the interiors, and then stuff them with the most incredible bread sausage stuffing. You’re going to lose your mind.
So the great thing about the cook time for the artichokes like I said is about 20 minutes is that it let’s me get my stuffing made. So my stuffing is basically—I’ve already got in here Italian sausage which you know has that amazing smell and flavor anyway. So this makes the whole thing so much easier. I’ve got onion in here and garlic. I’m just going to add a little bit of salt and some pepper. And I’m going to throw in my parsley and this is just about ready for me to pull off of the stove top. I’m just going to give this a whirl.
And then I’m going to add in a few other goodies. Look how wonderful that is. Isn’t it beautiful? This stuffing is so killer. You’re lucky if it actually mixed it into the artichoke, you know, I’ve already had a few mouthfuls of it.
So this, I’m going to pull off while it is at this point and I’ve got a couple of cups of breadcrumbs that I dump in, and about a cup of cheese. This is parmesan that I’ve already grated. You know, you could add whatever but I love this with parmesan. I think it’s so good. Mix this yummy filling all up and it becomes the most perfect stuffing. Your house is going to smell like you’ve just moved into a little Italian villa.
So when my artichokes are done, it’s usually about 20 minutes that they go for, I pull them out. I turn them upside down on top of a cooling rack that I have a towel under. The great thing about it is it drains everything out and you have to let this sit for a little while anyways because you want to be able to pick them up. They need to be cooled to the touch in order for you to do the next step. Otherwise, you can burn your little paws.
So here’s the next piece and this is really easy. Again, don’t let it intimidate you. All you do is sort of grab onto the leaves. You see like I am and you gently, gently otherwise you’ll rip them all off and what you want to get to is this middle part. The reason you want to get rid of this middle part is it’s the choke and it’s like—it would be like eating a piece off. What I do is I just take a spoon and I gently scrape out the inside part. It’s basically these lighter leaves that you’re looking to scrape out in this little choke part, and it comes out really, really easily. What you have to be aware of is down underneath all of the choke is where the goodness lies.
Not that the whole thing isn’t absolutely fantastic, but what you’re trying to get out is just this little bit of—you see this fuzzy gunky stuff? You do not want to be eating that. It would be like eating a hairball. Nobody wants that and so you can see I just kind of take the spoon and I just sort of scrape it along until I get to the point where all I’ve got is this smooth little bowl in the bottom. And then, that’s the heart right in there. The wonderful thing about that is that it’s really the tastiest yummiest part. So then when I stuff it, I've got this wonderful little place to pull a little bowl of love and then I can put it all between the leaves too.
Okay, so you’ve done all your busy work, you pulled out the choke, and you’ve got your marvelous stuffing that you’ve probably taken a spoonfuls for yourself by now. So here’s how you do the stuffing piece. It’s pretty no brainer. You know me, I just use my hands kind of do that with anything. I just grab a handful and I just basically pack this baby. And then what I do, you can do it right over the pan or however, it’s easiest for you holding it. Then you just kind of want to get a little bit between the leaves so that each time you take a marvelous bite, you get a little bit of stuffing. I mean you’re not going to get one in every bite but you get it in a lot of bites. And you’ve get some of that good cheese melting and some of the wonderful sausage. So kind of divide your stuffing out evenly. You’ve got any extra left, you know, just pack it onto the tops of the other ones. There’s no fancy art to this you guys. The reason I love this so much is my grandmother has been making artichokes ever since I was a kid and then my mother who has always made stuff to artichokes.
So while it might look like a little bit truly, it is so worth it once you taste them. So these are basically done. So now what I do is I’ve got—I do not want to waste one little precious bite of the stuffing. So then what I do is I’ve got my Dutch oven and I just put them back in the Dutch oven. And I just kind of nestle them in and I will show you how I do. Put them in there and they fit pretty well. So if you don’t have a Dutch oven, you can use like a baking pan, whatever you’ve got. And then naturally, I drizzle them with a little bit more of olive oil, just over the tops. Just kind of eyeball it. You don’t have to get too fancy on this. And then, I actually pour about a cup of water in the bottom of the pan. And then I pop them in the oven and they’re so fantastic. They will get nicely browned, it’s a 400 degree oven. I put them in for about 15 minutes. If you feel like after that time they’re not brown enough on the top, then turn on your broiler, push them up a little bit, let them go a little bit longer but you’re just looking for them to look nicely brown because basically, they are already cooked. At this point, your sausages are done in everything else. You’re just looking for all of their flavors to become this one yummy, gorgeous medley.
So once your artichokes are beautifully browned and like I said, if they’re not getting to the gorgeous golden brown, place that you want them to be, throw on your broiler, put them in there for another minute and they will be so gorgeous and golden like these are. I actually ended up broiling these just for about a minute. And if you’ve never eaten artichokes before, I don’t want to assume anything. Here’s the deal. They’re such a gorgeous, wonderful thing to look at but then you might be thinking how this one eat one of these things. So all of these wonderful leaves are what you’re eating and basically you tear off one of the leaves, and this one has lots of good, wonderfulness to it. And all you’re doing is you’re biting it and you’ve bite down and you want to get this wonderful little peck I love at the end. So I’ll show you. It’s marvelous. I hope you make them. Email me, blog me, tell me what you think about them because I think you’re going to have another yummy favorite on your hands.
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