More of Fada's Veggie Love: Artichokes

Vegetables are like people. Some are friendly and familiar: like potatoes and carrots, you always feel comfortable around them and know what to do with them. Some you can only take in small doses, like chili peppers and horseradish. Some are essential for your well being and are with you all the time, like onions and garlic. There are the ones you don't get on with at all: beetroot for me. Then there are the awkward ones: artichokes are like that, but don't be afraid of them! They're delicious characters once you get to know them! I love them because they have a nuttiness of flavour and seem a vegetable of substance (like aubergines, potatoes or avocados).

Unfamiliar and strange looking vegetables can be daunting when you don't know anything about them: artichokes fall into that category for me as I don't think I even knew they existed till I was about 25. How do you cook them? How exactly do you eat them and which bits?


Firstly, you choose as many artichokes as will fit in a pot standing upright as this is how they will be boiled. Soak the artichokes in salt water before cooking as I've been told that sometimes insects hide in between the leaves though I can't remember ever finding any. Give them a good rinse and add, standing up, to boiling water. They take about 20-25 minutes to cook and you can tell when they're done by sticking a knife into them - the knife will go in easily. You can eat them hot in which case you serve them with melted butter and salt (added to the butter) or, you can let them go cold, and serve with a vinaigrette or add to other salads.

So, how do you eat them? Well, from the outside in...tear off the leaves, dip the tips into a salted butter sauce and scrape off the fleshy ends of leaves with your teeth. Delicious! Once all the leaves are off, you'll be faced with the 'choke' - a fibrous, hairy mass protecting the 'heart' - the tender, delicious base of the plant. Very young artichokes have no 'heart' and so you can eat all the middle bit. Older ones have a lot of 'heart' so you have to take it out with a teaspoon/fingers/a knife. Something here seems metaphorical...