How to Eat an Artichokes

Artichokes are just coming into season.  They are a little work, but completely worth it.  They can also be really romantic.  You and your love can cook them together, feed them to one another, and then enjoy their effects as a supposed aphrodisiac.

Servings: 1 artichoke

Time: Prep: 10 minutes Cooking: 30-45 minutes

Hardware: A knife and a cutting board, kitchen scissors, a spoon, and a steamer

Choose an artichoke that is tightly closed. Smaller artichokes are more tender, larger ones have larger hearts (the best part.) It is okay if the artichoke has brown spots. Those spots are where frost has 'kissed' it.

Ingredients:

• artichoke
• lemon
• garlic
• bay leaves

 To cook:

1. Put water in the steamer, add the quartered lemon, the crushed garlic, and two bay leaves. Turn up to medium-high, add the basket,  and cover.
2. Wash the artichoke right before preparing it.  If you wash it earlier, it will spoil faster.
3. The artichoke leaves will have thorns at each end.  Use the kitchen scissors and snip the pointy tips from all of the leaves.
4. Cut off about an inch from the pointy end of the artichoke and cut off the stem.
5. Pull off all the little leaves that are close to the stem.
6. The water should be boiling now.
7. Add the artichokes and replace the lid. Reduce the heat to simmer and steam the artichokes for 30-45 minutes.  The artichokes are done when you can easily remove a leaf.  The bigger the artichoke the longer it will need to steam.



To eat:

1.  Remove the leaves, one at a time
2. Dip the fleshy end in melted butter or in a dipping sauce. Place the end of the leaf, fleshy inner part down, into your mouth and gently bite down.  Pull the leaf through your teeth to scrape the edible part into your happy mouth.  Throw the leaf away.
3. Dip, bite, scrape, discard, and repeat until all the leaves are gone
4. Now you need to remove the ‘choke’ part.  Use a spoon to gently scrape the fuzzy needles away.  You will need to rinse the spoon and maybe the artichoke as you are doing so.
5. Now you have the artichoke heart, the best part.  You can slice this up and eat it or add it to your favorite recipes.