Thithter Thuthee Thitting on a Thithle: artichokes

Many years ago, when I was in first grade, we had to learn this stupid song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.' the above was a line from the song, where the singer was trying to say "sister susie sitting on a see saw." Well, he had to say "thistle" of course, and I'm thinking about thistles because of artichokes.

I associate local artichokes with late summer, or fall, when I can in fact find them. They are extremely difficult to grow in NY, and I know several farmers who have done them for one year, and just given up. One farmer (Muddy Rivers farms), has them every year, late in the harvest year, but that's about it.

SO, last Monday, wandering about the market, I was checking out one of my new, favorite vendors. Very friendly people, who discount for bringing your own bag, all that jazz, and there it was: one box of medium sized artichokes. In June. I have never seen that before, but hey, signs are signs, and I grabbed eight of them (well, I paid for them). The farmer told me that he had planted them in February, in his greenhouse, they were a "helluva lot of work," but he was committed to keeping them going. BRAVO!

Artichokes are the unopened flower bud of a thistle plant. I don't know how many different types of them there are, but there are a lot. You may think that the small ones are a different type of artichoke than the big ones, but that's not true. My understanding is that the older the plant is, the bigger the flower bud, until the plant dies. I think the lifespan may be 5-7 years or something like that, but I really don't know. In any event, these were on the small side, and I bought eight of them.

I have written earlier about some recipes I made, using artichoke hearts. In fact, when I was growing up, we ate artichokes a lot, but we always ate WHOLE artichokes, always the same way. I HATED them. And Nana used to look at me and screech ASHPETT (dialect for WAIT). One day, these will be your favorite vegetable. She wasn't far from wrong. I love artichokes, and I love them best the way she made them. That's how I made them today: stuffed and steamed.

You won't find artichokes cooked this way in many restaurants. There used to be a place in the Village that did them, but that place is long gone. It's a very southern technique. Normally, you do it with the big, huge globe artichokes, but I did these with medium sized ones, and they were fine. Try it.

I am not going to give you exact quantities, because I can't tell you how much to use. it depends on your artichokes : how big are they. But you'll need garlic, some herbs (fresh if you can, dried if you can't. I used fresh thyme, but Nana used parsley and dried oregano), breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Chop up the garlic and add it to the herbs. Then add a fair amount of breadcrumbs and a bit of salt. Finally, add enough olive oil to get a mix the consistency of wet sand. Taste it, and if it needs more salt, add more.

Now, address your artichokes. First, trim the stems so that they are even, as they will be standing in a pot. Then break off the bottom leaves, and then with a sharp knife, cut across the top to make them nice and even. Now, carefully (you don't have to be that careful with the big ones), push the leaves apart, like you were trying to force open a rosebud. (No comments, you pigs). Fill the crevices with the breadcrumb mixture, and then stand the artichokes in a heavy pot, just big enough to hold them all. It's better if they are more snug than loose. Then, add enough water to come about an inch up on the artichokes, and add half again as much olive oil. Cover the pot with a tight lid, turn the heat on to medium low, and go away for half an hour or so. Check by trying to pull an outside leaf out. If it separates easily, they're done. If it's close, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and come back in fifteen minutes. If you get resistance, cook for another fifteen minutes and try again.

When they're done, remove them with a slotted spoon to cool. As it happened, I had a lot of breadcrumb mixture fall into the pan, so I cooked the liquid hard, and got a "breadcrumb sauce" that I poured over the artichokes, and there they were.

These are best served at room temperature. And at this time of year, when it's hot, and muggy and sticky and no one really wants to have to make a hot meal, this is a great light lunch, or part of an antipasto dinner. In fact, I encourage all of you to do this: during the week, cook extra vegetables for all of the meals, and save the extras. Then, one night a week, just take those extra vegetables out, season them differently, and make yourself a nice, satisfying vegetarian dinner. Betcha you won't miss the meat.