Marinated Artichokes

Not another bloody post on artichokes! I can hear you folks! But these are pretty tasty and will last me awhile I'm sure. Today I had to harvest the first crop of artichokes, and I got them in the nick of time. If you leave them until when they begin to open, you may find they are useless to eat as the flower has developed too far. A couple of the ones I cut today were unfortunately like this, but the rest were fine. There were over 30 of them in various sizes, and there are more coming - especially if I give them a chop, they will shoot up again and produce more for picking around February. 

I had enough to do one 2 litre jar that used to have olives in it, and another smaller 1 litre bucket. Obviously don't bother doing this if you aren't growing your own or can't get them really cheap. The harvest I had today I would moderately price at about $70 if I bought them! The seasonings were nearly all from our own garden, so I only had to buy the extra virgin olive oil.

Remember my post a little while ago on preparing artichokes for stuffing? Follow the same procedure for preparation before steaming them, except remove all of the tough outer petals until you get to the paler ones. Instead of cooking them whole, cut the artichoke in half and remove the choke if there is one, keeping the heart. 

Put them in a pan of boiling water with 1 teaspoon salt and a splash of lemon juice, and cook for about an hour on simmer. 

Drain, rinse, and leave to cool.

In the 2 litre jar I put three cloves of garlic, 1/2 sliced lemon, oregano, thyme, and savoury...all from our own garden. I added a few peppercorns and filled the jar with extra virgin olive oil until all the contents were covered.

In the second smaller bucket I put some chillies, lemon, and lime leaves with some garlic ( again, all from the garden). I filled this one up also with oil.

Over the next few weeks, I will give them a stir to disperse the flavours evenly, and check they are marinating properly. If you do this, make sure it is left in a cool dark place, especially in the Summertime! If they are getting too warm, I will put them in the fridge. They will be ready about 6 weeks from now, just in time for Christmas. I'm looking forward to pasta and pizza with these stirred through - delicious!

Artichokes with Broad Bean and Corn Stuffing

                                     

I love broad beans even more than I love artichokes. Put the two together and I'm even happier. Since the two are readily available from the garden at the moment I'm enjoying creating with them. 

I had a bunch of beans ready for the picking today, so myself and the Kitchen Fairy shelled them for dinner. you can tell when they are ready to pick for the beans inside by gently squeezing the bulge where the bean is. If there isn't much give, they are ready. You can also eat them young when they are a few centimetres long whole in stirfrys- and the leaves are also edible - why not try them in a  mixed salad? 

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The easiest way to shell them is to pinch the top off, and run a finger down the "seam" popping out the beans as you go. I find it amazing that God created these with their own "Styrofoam" packaging. It's so soft and almost velvety,perfect for protecting the beans within.

What you end up with, is a pile like this. I blanch them for a minute in boiling water, and then cool. You can either eat them with their skin on if they are young enough, or if they are a bit older, you will need to shell them again. These guys were so young and sweet, I hardly needed to.

So, for the stuffing, this is what I did.

3/4 cup broad beans 

1 corn cob, kernels cut off

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

fresh dill, about 1 tablespoon chopped

1 garlic clove

knob of vegan margarine

1 tablespoon lemon juice

inner petals of the artichokes reserved earlier.

In a food processor, I combined the dill, garlic, artichoke petals, lemon juice, marg, and breadcrumbs. I added these to the corn kernels and beans, and then stuffed it into the artichokes. Popped them in the oven for about 15 minutes, and drizzled with a little olive oil when they came out. You could squeeze a little more lemon over them if you wanted to. when the stuffing is eaten, you can eat the petals by sliding the flesh off the petals with your teeth. Excellent dipped in a little garlic butter...

What about the rest of the stuffing? I added some chopped onion, formed them into patties, and fried each side until golden. They will make a great vegie pattie in a sandwich with some lettuce and mayo. Mmmmm....

Preparing Fresh Artichokes for Stuffing

The time has come the walrus said, to talk of many things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of artichokes and kings... OK, so I may have tweaked Lewis Carroll a wee bit there...but you get my meaning! It's artichoke season! Hurrah! So I thought I'd show you folk how to prepare fresh artichokes, because I know for a fact most people wouldn't have a clue what to do with them. If you are lucky enough to be able to grow your own, this is a highly cheap meal, if not, grab them while they are nice and cheap at the grocer...cheapest I've ever seen was $1.00 each. If you have the room, they make a lovely border and the silver green fronds are very hardy through winter, and are so pretty in their own right I must commend them to you. But I'm getting distracting talking of the virtues of artichokes. Let's get down to business...

You must work quickly with artichokes, as they brown quickly. If you are doing a bundle of them, I suggest keeping a large pot with water and a splash of lemon juice beside you so that as you cut, you dunk them until you're ready to cook. First off, cut the top part off to remove all the spiky ends. 

Then turn it over, and cut the bottom off. If you are preparing them for stuffing, you will need the bottom nice and flat, as you can see below.

Next, fill a saucepan with water about two inched high. You want to steam rather than boil them, as you can see below.

Put the lid on the saucepan, and once the water boils, turn down to simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. Drain, and run cold water over them, and then allow to cool.

Once cool, gently prise apart the petals, the inner part which is soft and delicate flesh is fine to eat as is. Gently prise this out, as you can use it back in the stuffed artichokes later.

Any petals with a thorn on the end, as you can see above, trim. Last thing you want is your dinner date to choke on one of these!

If you are preparing the artichoke hearts for marinating, and dig deeper into the flower, discard this hairy bit, this is the "choke," and is NOT edible!

Underneath is the heart, which is absolutely divine marinated, but this will be for another post!