French Cooking: Artichoke

On our first day, we arrived to our apartment at around 10 a.m.  After several hours of sleep, Dylan and I made ourselves get up to explore the neighborhood and gather supplies for dinner.  Down the street from our place, we found a grocery store that had everything we needed, the Carrefour. We became very good customers at the local Carrefour throughout our two week trip.  There we picked up an artichoke, box of pasta, onion, garlic, butter, prosciutto, a baguette and a bottle of 2012 Côtes du Rhône featured below.

Artichoke Recipe: 

3 tbsp Butter

1/2 Onion diced 

3 Garlic cloves diced

1 Artichoke

2 Pinches of salt

Prep: Cut the rough top off the artichoke off with a knife.  Then using kitchen scissors cut the point off each leaf. For help with this step please see bottom of the page for Martha Stewart's video link.

Cook Artichoke: Boil a large pot of water, salted. Once boiling place the artichoke and cook for about 25 minutes, until the leaves come off easily when pulled.

Sauce: Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion and stir on medium to high heat. When the onions begin to caramelize, add the garlic. Overall cook time around 12 minutes.

Combine: Place the artichoke top side down in a bowl or serving dish. Pour the butter mixture on top of the artichoke being sure to cover all areas so it can soak in the butter.

Eat: Pull off the leaves and soak up any onion and butter mixture. Pull the first few layers of green from the inner portion of the leaves. Once all the leaves have been eaten, the artichoke heart will be in the bottom center and can be eaten. The heart is the best part, so don't forget about it! 

http://www.marthastewart.com/973766/how-prepare-artichoke-steaming#973766