How To Make A Perfect Steamed Artichoke

By mm_food4me

An artichoke is a wonderful, dramatic hors d’oeuvre usually intended to serve several people. Provide an additional bowl for guests to place their discarded leaves. To eat, remove a leaf from the artichoke bulb and scrape the meaty part off with your teeth. Discard the rest of the leaf. When the artichoke is cooked perfectly, as yours should be, the inner leaves should be tender enough to be eaten whole. When you get to the center of the artichoke, remove the remaining tiny leaves with your hands, and use a large spoon to scoop out the fuzzy hairs in the center of the heart, as demonstrated in the video below. Cut the heart into 6 to 8 pieces and make sure everyone gets a slice.

Ingredients

• 1 large artichoke
• 1/4 lemon
• high-quality olive oil, to taste
• coarse sea or Kosher salt to taste
• parsley, freshly chopped
• lemon oil to garnish, optional
• lemon zest, to garnish, optional

Preparation

Step 1

Use a large, sharp knife and cut off the top third of the artichoke. Peel off the smallest bottom leaves, and use scissors to trim the sharp thorn tips off each of the remaining leaves. Use the knife to cut the stem off close to the bulb, making the cut as straight as possible so the artichoke can easily sit upright without tipping over.

Fill a deep stock pot with 1/2 inch of water and bring to boil. Place cleaned artichoke face down in the water, cover with a lid and set a timer for 20 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this time.

When the timer goes off, use tongs to turn the artichoke so it sits upright. Gently drizzle olive oil over the artichoke, being sure it drips down between the leaves and into the heart. Sprinkle generously with salt. Add another 1/2 to 1 cup water to the pot so the depth is back to 1/2-inch. Cover again and reset timer another 20 minutes.

After the second timer goes off, use tongs to try and remove an outer leaf. If it pulls off easily, turn off the pot and transfer artichoke to a serving plate. If the leaf does not tear off easily, replace the lid on the pot and steam an additional 5 minutes, no more.

Squeeze lemon slice over the leaves and sprinkle parsley. If you have lemon oil, gently drizzle it over the artichoke. If you don’t have lemon oil, but would like some additional lemon flavor, a little lemon zest will create a similar effect; drizzle with some regular olive oil if you don’t use lemon oil. Add a few more sprinkles of salt and serve.