Family & Friends

Please pass the butter…

July 24, 2011 / 28 Comments

I’m in love with this vegetable…just look at it!  Isn’t it beautiful?

To think that something high in potassium, calcium and iron can also be this beautiful!

My husband learned a great trick for cooking these pretties on his fishing trip.  The Canadian chef they met cuts them in half before cooking.

It cuts the cooking time to about 20 minutes and the end result is a beautiful vegetable ready for the table…

Yummm, please pass the butter (or do you prefer mayonnaise?)

Another little trick the chef used was to pan fry the artichokes (cut side down) in a bit of olive oil before serving.

My husband loves them this way but I prefer dipping the leaves in a ramekin of melted butter.

Bitsy LOVES a bite or two of artichoke heart dipped in butter. Chelsea doesn’t care for them.   Mooch sides with Chelsea on this one.

Hugs,

Anne

You May Also Like

Thankful

November 26, 2014

28 Comments

  • Deborah Hays

    August 4, 2011 at 6:23 am Reply

    I didn’t know that there were so many of us that love this yummy veggie! I love them with Veganaise. It tastes exactly like mayo. My husband is a mayo lover, (Best Foods) but I want to keep him around a lot longer so I have been trying different alternatives of mayo for him. Nothing seemed to work until I found this little jewel! Voila! He can’t tell the difference… so I am happy… and he is as well! And yes, these beautiful veggies also grow into beautiful, purple flowers… that is unless you cut them before they bloom so that you can eat them! Your tip has made me hungry Anne! Have a great day gals!

  • Jean C.

    August 2, 2011 at 11:20 am Reply

    Your making me hungry!!! Mayo please!!! I learned to eat these from my gramma! And my mom! Just steamed and eat. Seems lately around here they are all dried up lookiing…. not impressive at all!
    Love the pictures your son took of the Eagles. We see them as we go up the canyon a lot of times.

  • Sinta Renee

    August 1, 2011 at 8:43 am Reply

    Mmmmm! My favorite! A little twist for mine… I like to put them on the grill for a couple minutes before serving/cut in half like that. I add herbs to the mayo for a nice fresh flavor. But my DIL mixes the mayo and butter together. That was a gorgeous artichoke.

  • Leslie

    August 1, 2011 at 6:18 am Reply

    I love artichokes. A friend recently bought a Cuisinart electric pressure cooker at Costco and was having great success. So I copied her. I have only tried artichoke in it. Totally worth it for that alone! I have cooked them in half or whole, with the choke removed or left in. 7 minutes!

    We were discussing artichoke a few weeks ago. I figured my grandmother served them since we had them often growing up. Nope. My mom and aunt went to Europe after college graduation. It was an eventful trip. Not only did their ship rescue some of the passengers of the sinking Andrea Doria, they had artichoke and escargot for the first time in Paris. I’m glad Mom adopted the artichoke, but left the escargot behind! We eat it with butter. My daughter-in-law prefers mayo.

  • Lynda

    July 29, 2011 at 9:26 pm Reply

    Yummy, indeed! I grew up in the 50s and 60s just south of San Francisco, and our house was built on land that had formerly been artichoke fields, so the ‘chokes grew in our backyard in that great soil. (So did anything else we planted – strawberries, tomatoes, spuds, blackberries, flowers galore.) We were a mayonnaise family, and although I’ve tried other things on my ‘chokes, I’ve never liked anything but mayo.

    Love all the cooking tips people have added. Wonderful post, Anne, and lovely pictures.

  • Sue Tokash

    July 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm Reply

    Love artichokes with oil, with butter, in box with a fox, I would eat them here or there, I would eat them anywhere! But my favorite is on a grilled pizza with a few hunks of fresh tomatoes, no sauce, just good olive oil, lots of garlic and really good mozzarella. They are also surprisingly easy to grow. I have a few growing in the flower garden because they are unique plants. Everyone is surprised to find out they are artichokes.
    Happy Eating,
    ~Sue

  • Jean

    July 27, 2011 at 11:17 am Reply

    I, like many of the others, have to have mayo with mine. I cut off the bottom, slice a little off the top and then use kitchen shears to trim off each tip of the “leaves” so there are no thorns. I rinse them good, put them in a casserole dish with a little water, cover it with plastic wrap and microwave them. It depends on the size but maybe 5 minutes for two average size ones or 9 minutes for the big ones. You have to experiment. So yummy!! I also like hot artichoke dip. Double yummy!!!

  • ina

    July 26, 2011 at 10:03 am Reply

    Anne, someone just showed me that same trick for pan cooking brussel sprouts…cut in half before cooking and put cut side down in skillet with olive oil and cook until tender. it was wonderful!

  • Sandy

    July 25, 2011 at 8:07 am Reply

    Yum! I love artichokes — with butter, with mayonnaise (lemon, especially), or grilled. And cooking time can be cut way back if you use a pressure cooker. :)

  • Melody

    July 25, 2011 at 1:46 am Reply

    I love artichokes, I’ve got them growing in my veggie patch and they are such a beautiful plant. If you don’t like the taste they are worth growing anyway as they are so beautiful.

  • Val

    July 24, 2011 at 10:59 pm Reply

    I don’t go much on your artichokes. They seem just too strange to eat! But I loved the pictures of the eagles in your previous post. Such magnificent birds.

  • Alyse b

    July 24, 2011 at 9:29 pm Reply

    I love these. mayonnaise all the way. I also rinse them cut off the top. Put in a bag and microwave for 5 min. Easy fast and pure deliciousness. :)

  • PattyBYoung

    July 24, 2011 at 8:59 pm Reply

    I like butter…my husband like balsamic vinegar or a mustard mayo. I’ve always cooked them in the pressure cooker, but am willing to try a new method. After you cut them, do you pan fry? Bake? Please tell!
    Patty
    p.s. We grow them in our backyard…they are perennials…require no care…they just pop out about 5-8 artichokes per bush per year…you could probably grow them too!

    • Anne

      July 25, 2011 at 8:18 am Reply

      After you cut them you just boil in water. Your pressure cooker is probably the best. I’m just afraid of pressure cookers, ever since I was a child. My mom always used one and somehow I thought it would blow up on her. Funny how things stick from childhood.

      I love the idea of balsamic vinegar! I’m going to try that next time we have these. As far as growing them I might give them a try! I’ve heard the take 3 years to mature. Is that true?

  • Vickie

    July 24, 2011 at 6:50 pm Reply

    We’re enjoying fresh produce too! today we had peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, papaya, lime, brocolli…i just love summer when everything is good! oh, bell pepper sna donions too.

  • Monica

    July 24, 2011 at 6:08 pm Reply

    Mayonnaise? *blink blink*

    I love artichokes but apparently I’ve been living under a rock because I have never heard of using mayo on artichokes. I did a google search and there were a bunch of recipes using different kinds of mayo…WOW.

    Thank you for lifting the rock…hahaha.

Leave a Reply