Chef Paul’s "Cookin' with Passion" Tip of the Week
Grilling Tip No. 5 - Artichokes
Paul O'Toole: Tip of the week to you. This is Chef Paul O'Toole, chief culinary officer for all of the Forewinds Hospitality Golf Clubs with this week's tip.
Let's talk about artichokes, one of
the most underutilized most delicious vegetables.
When I was in California, not too long ago, I went down into the valleys
and saw artichokes growing. Actually the artichoke resembles what I used
to have growing in my front yard until I got weed killer, which was thistle.
Artichokes are in the thistle family, and if you look at them closely
you can see the resemblance, but I doubt if they taste the same!
Summertime,
or in the wintertime, either one, it's just a fabulous taste. So, what
do we do with an artichoke? The easiest thing to do is to open up a can
if you're looking for artichokes, right?
Well, we're going to take fresh artichokes and we're going to get them in a decent
size, about the size of a grannysmith apple. We're going to take a pair of scissors
and we're just going to snip the tips off, because they have little pinchers.
We're just going to take the very tip off, maybe a half an inch. We're going
to go around the artichoke with a pair of scissors and snip these right into
the trashcan.
After that, we're going to take a knife and split the artichoke directly in half, all the way down through the stem. We're going to split it all the way in half, and what's going to happen is you're going to open this up, and you're going to say, "What the heck is that inside?" What you're looking at there is the artichoke heart, the artichoke bottom, and the choke itself, which is all that hairy stuff that grows in there.
We're not going to worry about that just yet. We're going to take a pot of water, maybe two quarts on the stove, and get it nice and hot. Put in one tablespoon of salt and when it starts to get really get hot, we're going to put our artichokes in there.
Let that sit in there and just simmer away, probably going to take a good 25 minutes in that water for it to soften up. And how are we going to tell if it's soft? We're going to pull an artichoke out with a pair of tongs, put it down and just take a fork and put it in the bottom of the artichoke. It's called the artichoke bottom, actually. If the fork goes all the way through, then your artichokes are done.
What we're going to do next with that artichoke is take a pair
of tongs, or a fork, and we're going to get rid of the “choke” all
that hairy stuff that's in there. I guess that's the easiest way to describe
it, is the little hair that grows inside. We're going to get rid of all
of that, and then take fresh lemons and squeeze them over them, then
take kosher salt and pepper and sprinkle that on both sides, inside and
out.
Then, soften a little bit of butter, maybe two tablespoons of butter,
and take a pastry brush and just brush that butter on. Then put them
on the hot grill just to get marks on both sides of the artichokes, both
the round side and the flat side.
As we're grilling this, on medium heat, we're going to brush both sides of it with butter. We're going to get a little caramelization on the inside, and it's going to start to cook up, What's going to happen is all the sugars in the butter and the artichoke itself are going to start come to the surface
Then we're going to take it off the grill and squeeze just a little bit of fresh lemon on.We're going to put that aside for a minute, because we're going to mix what's called a quick remoulade.
Now, a quick remoulade at home, we can do this pretty easily. We're going to take two tablespoons of mayonnaise, the juice of one fresh lemon, one tablespoon of capers, drained, if you have any dill pickles in the refrigerator, just take that pickle out and chop it up and add it. Then put in two dashes of worcestershire sauce and two dashes of Tabasco sauce, and whip all that together - that is going to be our dipping sauce for our artichokes.
Now, if you've never eaten an artichoke, we're going to peel those little leaves away, and at the very base, there is the most delicious meat that sits in the bottom of that artichoke. We're just going to peel that back and take that off with our teeth. It sounds interesting, but they're a lot of fun to eat, and then when you get to the heart and the bottom of the artichoke, now you're really talking! You're going to dip it into your sauce.
It's a
great grilled item when you're outside, people having fun and hanging
out. Nobody will expect you to have artichokes when they come over, and
everyone will be asking for the recipe when they leave.
That's my tip of the week. I'm here to make certain your dining experience
at any Forewinds Golf Club is a wow! Come out and taste the difference
for yourself!
This is Chef Paul, promising we'll deliver Hospitality PLUS! on every visit.
