Artichoke? What’s that?
Seriously though, it wasn’t until the last few years that I had ever really eaten an artichoke. My family was from the south, and we usually stuck with your everyday “normal types” of veggies, so believe me when I tell you, that I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what an artichoke was if you had asked me!
Skip ahead to the last few years…
I LOVE ARTICHOKES!
My husband & I have raised our family smack dab in the middle of Italian country, and let me tell you, they love their artichokes! But even with my new found love of this veggie from heaven, I still have never been brave enough to buy them from the store & cook them myself… until now!
If you’re anything like me, you love the great artichoke recipes that you have out in your favorite restaurant, but haven’t braved the “cook your own at home” scenario yet 🙂
So… I’ve decided to share a few GREAT resources that I have recently come across, that I think will help you uncover the mystery of cooking artichokes at home. Even though there are several different ways to prepare artichokes, they are delicious any way you slice them!
How to Eat an Artichoke Video:
Click Here for a great step by step how to article, including detailed pictures
This brought my memory of my first artichoke experience. On a plane (first plane trip ever at age 17 with another 17 yr old girl flying to Turkey – this was nearly 40 years ago so it was safer then but still crazy). We returned home with very little money and were on student fares being bumped from one flight to another and were really hungry. Finally got on one of the flights and we were excitedly awaiting dinner. They handed us our trays and there were big green things on the plate. We almost cried. Neither of us had seen an artichoke before let alone ate one. We carefully tore off the leaves and being so hungry – we each ate the entire things! Stewardess saw we ate them all and was so kind to bring us two more. We went ahead and ate most of them, too. I still giggle when I think of our shock and my friend’s face when we first accounted our artichokes. I haven’t eaten one since. 🙂
I’ve heard so many stories about people being presented with an artichoke, then without knowing, going ahead & eating the whole thing! Poor people!
I do think you should try again… who knows…you may end up loving them!
My mom’s parents were from Sicily, so I grew up eating many different vegetables. We would have artichokes and I loved them, but I was terrified that I would choke to death if I ate any of the choke. Isn’t that silly?
If you want to recreate how we ate them, mix up bread crumb, parmescian(how to spell that?) cheese, salt, pepper, parsley and finely chopped garlic and sprinkle this into the leaves. Blend and egg with water and drizzle over the artichokes. Cover and steam them, and enjoy. The filling reminded me of what we would use in meatballs. Maybe the memories make this taste good to me, since this is a recipe I have never seen before.
Great post, not everyone knows how to deal with these tasty green veggies.