A gift of artichokes

"The artichoke above all is the vegetable expression of civilised living, of the long view, of increasing delight by anticipation and crescendo." Jane Grigson

One of my Sunday luncheon guests brought me a gift of four artichokes that looked a bit like these, from her garden with the proviso that I wrote a blog on it. Well here I am waiting rather nervously for what I have done with the artichokes to finish their cooking.

I think I wrote about artichokes in general and marinaded artichokes in jars from the supermarket before, so I won't go on about what they are. Anyway I'm sure you all know they are a kind of thistle and have been regarded as a delicacy for centuries.

No I shall write about what I have just done and how I came to decide on this.

First of all I checked out my standby vegetable people - Beverley Sutherland Smith, Bert Greene and the River Cottage people, and then I looked at the oldies - Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson, though I forgot to check out Robert Carrier - another time perhaps. I was tempted by Elizabeth David's Artichauts à la barigoule which basically cooks very young artichokes in oil and water until crisp on the outside and tender in the middle:

"arrange them stalks in the air, on a hot dish, so that they look like beautiful little bronzed flowers, with the crisped petals spreading out."

But I didn't think my artichokes were quite as young as she seemed to describe the ones for this dish. Jane Grigson has a dish with the same title, but it's much more complicated and involves stuffing the artichokes. So not for me either.

My friend seemed to think they might not be suitable for that French thing of peeling off the leaves and dipping the ends in vinaigrette. So I wondered if I could make my own marinaded artichokes. Well actually I thought they were probably pickled, so that is what I searched on. I did find a few different recipes for marinaded and/or pickled artichokes, but in the end I settled on a recipe from Curtis Stone because I have a bit of a soft spot for his suggestions that appear in the Coles Magazine, and besides they looked yummy in the photograph which appeared, along with the recipe in Gourmet Traveller.

He suggests that when you come to serve them you actually barbecue them and add herbs and oil to make them look good - they are suitably charred Clare!

Well I have now more or less finished the process - you can find the recipe here - but I have my doubts - mostly I think because of that whole preparation thing. Believe me I read several different people's recommendations for what to do, but I have a feeling I have not cut enough off the bottom or the top. And I have to tell you that they might be lovely looking but you sure seem to waste an awful lot of vegetable in the process of preparing them.

"Inside the immature flowerhead of this most majestic of veg patch plants lies a heart of the most incredible, succulent, sweet, earthy loveliness. Unfortunately, however, globe artichokes seem to have been created with the sole aim of denying us their delicious centre.

They come with armour plating, their petals ranging from deeply scarring to outright digit-removing in their sharpness and, once you get past those obstructions, you'll find a furry , irritating layer - not for nothing called the 'choke'" Mark Diacono - River Cottage A-Z

I have to admit that my petals were not that spiky which makes me thing that maybe I should have left more of them on. But then again, maybe I should have cut off the tops more, and shaved around the bottom. And yes, that 'choke' was very irritating. I scooped it out with a teaspoon but the little bits got stuck everywhere and I suspect I missed some. I wasn't just aiming for ending up with the hearts alone you see. I wanted to end up with some of the tenderer leaves, and so I had to scoop out the 'choke'.

Really I think it is amazing that somebody back in ancient times ever thought to peel off the leaves and find what was in the middle. The mind boggles.

Then there was the enormous problem of stopping them going brown as you worked. I kept rubbing the cut surfaces with a lemon and put them in lemon water as soon as I could, but nevertheless they sometimes went brown and unappetising looking. Maybe that's why Curtis Stone barbecues his!

Anyway it's done now. They are currently cooling after their cooking in wine, oil and vegetable stock. I'm about to go and put it in the prepared pickling liquid and refrigerate. The recipe says they will keep for 5 days which doesn't seem very long - surely they will keep for longer in a pickling liquid. Well I have some people here for a deli kind of lunch on Friday so maybe we'll give them a go. Now will I barbecue them - well cook them on the griddle? Or maybe I should have another lunch party and serve Italian antipasti. We'll see.