An artichoke is the bud of a thistle plant with seemingly inedible thorny "leaves" (properly called bracts) protecting a mass of tough (and often sharp) florets. Artichokes (more properly known as Globe artichokes or French artichokes) have no relation to Jerusalem artichokes or Chinese artichokes (both of which are tubers consumed as root vegetables).
Cutting open the artichoke reveals its anatomy - which has already been color coded for us. The green areas are tough and inedible (the bracts that form the outer layers of the artichoke). Yellow areas are mostly edible. These include the meaty base of each bract (where it connects to the base or receptacle at the top of the stem), inner soft bracts, the receptacle (referred to as the heart), and the interior of the stem. Purple and white (the area directly under the purple) means "Don't Eat Me" - these are what would have become the purple thistle if the artichoke was allowed to fully mature.
Let's take a closer look at the center of the artichoke. The fleshy recepticle at the top of the stem where all the bracts and the florets (the choke) attach to is called the heart. The choke is inedible, so needs to be removed either before cooking or while eating.I start preparing grilled artichokes the same way as I prepare them for steaming. I typically start by getting an inch of water boiling in a pot with a steamer insert as I prepare the artichokes.
Prep the artichokes by using a pair of kitchen shears to cut off the thorny tips of each of the bracts. Cut about 1/4 of the bract off during this operation. This is done as a courtesy to the diner's fingers (and it makes the artichoke look nice).
Once the bracts have been trimmed, use a large, sharp knife to cut off the tip of the artichoke. Cut off either the whole stem or just the tip (where it's brownish black). The stem is edible, but unless the artichoke is very large, the flesh is quite bitter. If you plan on eating the stem, just cut a little bit off the stem. If not, then you can chop the whole stem off.Related Articles
Artichokes can be steamed until they are completely cooked (anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes depending on size). Sticking a fork into the stem (through the cut side) and meeting no resistance at all usually indicates the artichoke is done cooking. Remove the artichoke and allow to rest for 20 minutes before serving.
However, for grilled artichokes, just steam the artichokes for 15 minutes and remove. (While steaming the artichokes, preheat the grill.) The artichoke will be softened but not fully cooked. Cut the artichoke in half along its axis of symmetry.
The artichoke will still have its choke.
Using a melon baller, measuring spoon, or tableware spoon, scoop out the choke and discard. Be careful, the choke can make quite a mess if allowed to - just scoop and toss. If you miss a bit of the florets, use the spoon to scrape against the heart and the florets should come off onto the spoon.
Cut open and remove the chokes from each artichoke and then brush the cut side of the artichokes with olive oil, being sure to coat the heart. Generously sprinkle salt and pepper over the cut side and transfer to a hot grill.
Grill over medium heat with the cut side up for 10 minutes and then flip the artichokes over and grill for another 5 minutes. Serve with Dijon mustard mayonnaise or sauce of your choice.Grilled Artichokes (one large artichoke per serving)
| Boil 1 in. (2.5 cm) water in pot with steamer attachment / Preheat grill | |||||||
| 1 large artichoke | trim | steam 15 min. | cut from tip to base | brush | season | grill 10 min. medium heat with cut side up | grill 5 min. cut side down |
| 1 tsp. (5 mL) olive oil | |||||||
| salt and pepper | |||||||
Dijon mustard mayonnaise dipping sauce
| 2 Tbs. (30 g) mayonnaise | mix |
| 1 tsp. (5 g) Dijon mustard | |
| 1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce |
It's not uncommon to entertain guests who have not eaten artichokes before. So, I've decided to include a brief pictorial of how to eat a whole steamed artichoke. (Eating a grilled artichoke would be the same, except the diner doesn't have to deal with the choke.)
Starting form the outside and working your way in, snap off each bract from the base of the artichoke. The bract will have a fleshy, yellow part (where it was attached to the artichoke) - this is the part you eat. Dip it in a sauce (or not) and scrape the yellow portion off the fibrous bract with your teeth. Place the spent bract in a discard pile and draw another bract from the artichoke.
Once all the green bracts have been consumed, you will be left with a bunch of light yellow parts that have not yet become fibrous bracts. These are mostly edible, but may or may not be worth your time. Proceed eating them as you desire - or simply remove them as you would pluck petals from a flower. Eventually you will reach the purple color that signifies "Stop Eating".
Just grab the purple "petals" and as much of the remaining "petals" underneath and twist and pull them off. This will leave only the florets of the choke.
Use a spoon to scrape the florets off the base or heart of the artichoke.
With the heart cleaned, the rest of the artichoke can be consumed in its entirety. The stem can be bitter (especially the flesh near the exterior), so some diners may wish to avoid it.As a special note, smaller artichokes can be consumed whole, choke and all, if the other bracts are removed. When pickled, the smallest of artichokes are sold as pickled artichoke hearts (they include not just the hearts but the soft tender bracts as well).
Enjoy!
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If you use baby artichokes, you can eat the whole thing - but you should remove the outer layer of bracts first (as if you were planning to make fried artichoke hearts which would be another article). So, remove the outer bracts first leaving only the tender ones and steam, cut, clean, grill, eat.
On the indoor grill, you can try keeping the grill open and grilling them like that. Times will vary depending on the power of your electric grill.
Have fun with it!
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I did try the George Foreman method (don't have a grill, can't use one at my apartment easily) -- I would suggest maybe extending the cooking time beyond the 10 min (flip) 5 min for the electric option. My 'choke was cooked well enough, but didn't get the blackened, grilled flavor or look.
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Will have to try the broiler next time.
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Also did a variation on the sauce -- yogurt with dijon mustard, a little worcestershire, and some "cajun" spices. Was quite good...and just so this doesn't start a "healthy" war ;) -- I hate mayo.
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This artichoke recipe looks like something I can do, unique in comparison to the other artichoke links I found.
I bought an artichoke today and I'd be cooking it right now if I had some veggie mayo. Any other dips that are easy and vegetarian?
Thanks again!
Tahnks again for a good reciept
1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, mixed in 2 tbs lemon juice. A tsp drop of light mayo in the dip, on the side. Dip the artichoke leaf in the mixture with a light drag on the mayo to eat.
This dip works also very well with steamed crab!
May I thank you for your unique and detailed recipies. Step by step is the best, and you do not assume the reader" knows all about the subject"
A Grandma
I'm going to try it anyway-- fab something together with a foil pan, my steamer basket, and I think I have a spare foil cake-pan which, filled with water, should survive the burner just fine.
Excellent website and instructions on grilling artichokes. Our fave restaurant, The Rutherford Grill in California Wine country does a great job w/ these and we've been meaning replicate their efforts. The pictures, instructions, and anatomy lesson were excellent. My wife is a mechanical engineer and loved your site. We use mayo w/ a little soy sauce as our EZ dipping sauce. Keep up the excellent work and we'll be visiting your site often.
Mahalo,
Al Lim :)
(I used a olive oil,lemon juice,garlic,fresh oregano and balsamic vinegar marinade on the steamed artichokes prior to grilling.)
Love artichoke. Eat them any which way I can. simple dipping sauce, garlic pressed or finely chopped, lemon juice or balsamic vinegar and olive oil, salt to taste.
You can wrap the artichokes in aluminum foil and drizzle them with oil etc. and then put them standing up on the grill or in hot oven about 20 minutes.
You can cut them in half and in water microwave them covered for about 10 minutes on high, until fork pressed into base comes out tender feeling.
Enjoy.
In any event, I tried to replicate the process on my gas grill and discovered a few things. First, we cut the artichokes prior to steaming them. Bad idea. Second, we steamed the artichokes for 1 hour. Also not a good idea. The result was 1/2 the leaves falling off and through the grill. And the smoke flavor wasn't there.
Now that I have read your recipe and saw some of the posts, I try it again. BTW, I'm also trying to duplicate their corn bread recipe as well, but that has proven to be a little harder to find!
For anyone interested in growing artichokes - it is very easy to do.
We've been growing 3 artichoke plants in our front yard since Spring, and they've been incredibly easy to grow. We bought them small from a nursery & they're been very low maintenance. The plants look very cool aesthetically too!
Each plant has so far yielded 1-2 large ("crown"?) artichokes, and 10-15 smaller artichokes of various sizes. We've already eaten the large ones, but we're now letting the smaller ones continue to grow to see how large they'll get (but not letting them get to flower).
We're harvesting a few different sizes today & will try out your grilling instructions tonight. Thanks for the tips on how to eat different sizes!
PS - For a dip we've always used: 1 tsp mayo, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, and 2 dashes of Lemon Pepper... sometimes also a dash of cayenne pepper for zest.
We have artichokes quite often though and just use a quick-lazy method that works for us. Even the prep is done lazy-way.
...rinse artichokes to remove any dust/spray/etc
...if stems are long enough to bother with, peel outer covering with a veg. peeler, then cut stems flat to bottoms
(..I don't cut off any of the leaf tips, etc, since they don't bother me)
...turn artichoke(s) upside down (slightly askew okay) and place in a microwave-safe bowl/container (if I'm making two, I'll use a rectangular Pyrex dish)...drape artichokes lightly with piece of dry-wax paper (or waxed paper, plastic wrap, etc)
...microwave on High about 5-15 min depending on number/size, or till a fork or knife tip can be easily pushed into the upturned artichoke bottom
...serve with lemon butter for dipping
...remove outer leaves one at a time, dip/scrape with teeth
...remove thinner and softer inner leaves a few at a time, dip/bite off
...scrape choke off with sharp tablespoon, etc
...chop up bare bottom and dip/eat
As mentioned, I don't have a problem removing the leaves with sharp tips attached to dip and eat--guess I just grab them lower down, etc. (If I did have to snip off all those tips, suspect we wouldn't eat artichokes as often and I'd miss that!)
:D