Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg. I just reviewed the recent
artichoke discussion, and gather than Nancy does not emove the choke
before cooking (with the stuffing), and Anna Maria's photo demo pretty
much reduces the artichoke to the bottoms only. I Googled a bit and
found "small spoon," "small knife" and melon baller mentioned. Also
recipes that left the choke in place for cooking.

Looks to me as if there's no easy way to remove the choke from a
full-sized artichoke. Any secrets I'm missing? Thanks.

Frogleg wrote:
> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg.
(snip)

I'm not Nancy or Anna Maria, but a grapefruit spoon works just fine for me.
No one ever said artichokes were easy But oh so delicious!

Jill

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 06:06:35 -0600, "jmcquown"
> wrote:

>Frogleg wrote:
>> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
>> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
>> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg.
>(snip)
>
>I'm not Nancy or Anna Maria, but a grapefruit spoon works just fine for me.
>No one ever said artichokes were easy But oh so delicious!

So you *do* remove the choke before cooking?

I had a further idea -- a grapefruit *knife*. I don't have one, but
they appear to be serrated, and perhaps a little sharper than the
spoon. Also with a curved blade that might be able to scoop better
than a small regular knife.

Frogleg wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 06:06:35 -0600, "jmcquown"
> > wrote:
>
>> Frogleg wrote:
>>> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
>>> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
>>> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg.
>> (snip)
>>
>> I'm not Nancy or Anna Maria, but a grapefruit spoon works just fine
>> for me. No one ever said artichokes were easy But oh so
>> delicious!
>
> So you *do* remove the choke before cooking?
>
> I had a further idea -- a grapefruit *knife*. I don't have one, but
> they appear to be serrated, and perhaps a little sharper than the
> spoon. Also with a curved blade that might be able to scoop better
> than a small regular knife.

I *do* remove the choke prior to cooking. And I think the serrated edge of
the grapefruit spoon works perfectly since spoons are meant for scooping and
knives are not.

Care to share what you're going to be stuffing these with?

Jill

Frogleg wrote:
>
> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg. I just reviewed the recent
> artichoke discussion, and gather than Nancy does not emove the choke
> before cooking (with the stuffing), and Anna Maria's photo demo pretty
> much reduces the artichoke to the bottoms only. I Googled a bit and
> found "small spoon," "small knife" and melon baller mentioned. Also
> recipes that left the choke in place for cooking.
>
> Looks to me as if there's no easy way to remove the choke from a
> full-sized artichoke. Any secrets I'm missing? Thanks.

Whoops, I started to answer earlier but didn't finish. I have seen
people on tv remove the choke, it did look like a lot of work to me.
You've got to really loosen the leaves from the middle, creating a
big cavity. Then you can get in there. To be honest, I don't get
that method of stuffing artichokes. I'm talking about people who
put the stuffing into the cavity created when they do that and carve
out the choke. Why bother stuffing it is my thinking, just serve
the stuffing on the side.

That's just me. I prefer to stuff the leaves, this way, with every
leaf, you get the breadcrumb/garlic/olive oil/whatever instead of
just plain. Nothing wrong with plain, but essentially the artichoke
has become little more than a bowl rather than stuffed.

Sorry if I didn't make myself plain.

nancy

Nancy Young wrote:
> Frogleg wrote:
>>
>> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
>> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
>> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg. I just reviewed the recent
>> artichoke discussion, and gather than Nancy does not emove the choke
>> before cooking (with the stuffing), and Anna Maria's photo demo
>> pretty much reduces the artichoke to the bottoms only. I Googled a
>> bit and found "small spoon," "small knife" and melon baller
>> mentioned. Also recipes that left the choke in place for cooking.
>>
>> Looks to me as if there's no easy way to remove the choke from a
>> full-sized artichoke. Any secrets I'm missing? Thanks.
>
> Whoops, I started to answer earlier but didn't finish. I have seen
> people on tv remove the choke, it did look like a lot of work to me.
> You've got to really loosen the leaves from the middle, creating a
> big cavity. Then you can get in there. To be honest, I don't get
> that method of stuffing artichokes. I'm talking about people who
> put the stuffing into the cavity created when they do that and carve
> out the choke. Why bother stuffing it is my thinking, just serve
> the stuffing on the side.
>
> That's just me. I prefer to stuff the leaves, this way, with every
> leaf, you get the breadcrumb/garlic/olive oil/whatever instead of
> just plain. Nothing wrong with plain, but essentially the artichoke
> has become little more than a bowl rather than stuffed.
>
> Sorry if I didn't make myself plain.
>
> nancy

Oh, a seriously good stuffing for artichokes is small salad shrimp combined
with seasoned breadcrumbs blended with just enough melted butter to make it
moist. A nice presentation is to have some of the stuffing outside tucked
into the large (sharp points snipped) leaves. Serve, of course, with drawn
butter with a dash of lemon for dipping.

Now ya'll have got me craving artichokes.

Jill

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 14:13:19 -0500, Nancy Young
> wrote:

>
> That's just me. I prefer to stuff the leaves, this way, with every
> leaf, you get the breadcrumb/garlic/olive oil/whatever instead of
> just plain. Nothing wrong with plain, but essentially the artichoke
> has become little more than a bowl rather than stuffed.
>

Plus you've eliminated the best eating leaves when you do
that scoop out the choke before cooking bowlie thing.


Practice safe eating - always use condiments

Steam your artichokes upside down for 20 minutes. Take out and cool.
Spread leaves and easily remove the choke with a spoon scraping lightly.
Fill with your favourite bread stuffing and herbs plus cheese and tomatoes.
Put in a 350 oven for 60 minutes and you will have a melt in your mouth
entree.

Frogleg wrote:

> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg. I just reviewed the recent
> artichoke discussion, and gather than Nancy does not emove the choke
> before cooking (with the stuffing), and Anna Maria's photo demo pretty
> much reduces the artichoke to the bottoms only. I Googled a bit and
> found "small spoon," "small knife" and melon baller mentioned. Also
> recipes that left the choke in place for cooking.
>
> Looks to me as if there's no easy way to remove the choke from a
> full-sized artichoke. Any secrets I'm missing? Thanks.

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:09:59 GMT, wrote:

>Steam your artichokes upside down for 20 minutes. Take out and cool.
>Spread leaves and easily remove the choke with a spoon scraping lightly.
>Fill with your favourite bread stuffing and herbs plus cheese and tomatoes.
>Put in a 350 oven for 60 minutes and you will have a melt in your mouth
>entree.

This had occurred to me, too. I just wondered if pre-cooking for less
than 'done' time would make choke extraction significantly easier, and
still leave the artichoke firm enough to work with the stuffing. I
take it you have experience with this method. Sounds good to me.

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 13:10:36 -0600, "jmcquown"
> wrote:

>>> Frogleg wrote:

>>>> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
>>>> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
>>>> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg.
>>> (snip)

>Care to share what you're going to be stuffing these with?

Not me. A friend. I'll ask her. She said one of her guests was
terrifically impressed by the removal of the choke.

This is the way I always prepare artichokes for stuffing. It leaves the
body intact and an easy way to remove the choke.
Do this everytime I get a harvest of large globe artichokes.

Frogleg wrote:

> On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 00:09:59 GMT, wrote:
>
>
>>Steam your artichokes upside down for 20 minutes. Take out and cool.
>>Spread leaves and easily remove the choke with a spoon scraping lightly.
>>Fill with your favourite bread stuffing and herbs plus cheese and tomatoes.
>>Put in a 350 oven for 60 minutes and you will have a melt in your mouth
>>entree.
>
>
> This had occurred to me, too. I just wondered if pre-cooking for less
> than 'done' time would make choke extraction significantly easier, and
> still leave the artichoke firm enough to work with the stuffing. I
> take it you have experience with this method. Sounds good to me.

Frogleg wrote:
> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg. I just reviewed the recent
> artichoke discussion, and gather than Nancy does not emove the choke
> before cooking (with the stuffing), and Anna Maria's photo demo pretty
> much reduces the artichoke to the bottoms only.

From the way you put it I am afraid my pictures are not clear enough.

1. What I say is to remove the chokes only if necessary. The small
"baby" artichokes, especially now that are in season, should be tender
inside and fully edible. After you cut the tip, it is easy to open up
the leaves and look inside. If the chokes are purple and tough they need
to be scooped away, if they are green and tender they can be left and
they are edlible. Of course this is valid only for "baby" artichokes. If
you buy the overgrown giant elephant ones sold in the supermarket
chains, the chokes are garanteed inedible.

2. Our system of cleaning artichokes doesn't leave only the bottom. On
the contrary: we clean everything that is inedible anyway, so that when
you serve the artichokes what's on the plate is fully edible. When i say
our I mean in Italy....



I Googled a bit and
> found "small spoon," "small knife" and melon baller mentioned. Also
> recipes that left the choke in place for cooking.
>
> Looks to me as if there's no easy way to remove the choke from a
> full-sized artichoke. Any secrets I'm missing? Thanks.

3. To remove the chokes IF NECESSARY, you can use anything you think
works. I used a pointed small knife, a scoop, but in reality I prefer a
small rounder knife. The operation is quite easy I think.


I will post a recipe for stuffed artichokes later in the day. Gotta
run......

Ciao, Anna Maria


www.annamariavolpi.com

In article >,
Frogleg > wrote:

> Friend asked me about removing the choke before cooking stuffed
> artichokes. She used a grapefruit spoon, but found it difficult and
> hand-wearing for 6 or 8 large veg. I just reviewed the recent
> artichoke discussion, and gather than Nancy does not emove the choke
> before cooking (with the stuffing), and Anna Maria's photo demo pretty
> much reduces the artichoke to the bottoms only. I Googled a bit and
> found "small spoon," "small knife" and melon baller mentioned. Also
> recipes that left the choke in place for cooking.
>
> Looks to me as if there's no easy way to remove the choke from a
> full-sized artichoke. Any secrets I'm missing? Thanks.


Is the choke that hairy surface left when you remove all the leaves?

I boil artichokes whole, then peal and eat the soft part of each leaf,
then eat the tender leaves, and am left with the heart with hairy stuff
on it. Is that the choke? I use a very sharp pairing knife, and can
slide it under and cut it off cleanly, leaving the heart. I lose hardly
any heart.

Don't know if that helps.

Jim

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 18:59:08 -0700, Jim Kroger
> wrote:


Okay!!! I can't wait any longer and the new year is
coming.... are you related to the grocery store people?


Practice safe eating - always use condiments

Jim Kroger wrote:

> Is the choke that hairy surface left when you remove all the leaves?

Did anyone answer you? Yes, you are exactly right, it's the hairy
stuff.

> I boil artichokes whole, then peal and eat the soft part of each leaf,
> then eat the tender leaves, and am left with the heart with hairy stuff
> on it. Is that the choke? I use a very sharp pairing knife, and can
> slide it under and cut it off cleanly, leaving the heart. I lose hardly
> any heart.

That's how I eat them, but I stuff the leaves and steam the artichoke.

nancy

Follow up: My friend made Focaccia Stuffed Artichokes from the recipe
he

http://www.artichokes.org/recipes.html

Some of the other recipes and dips look pretty good to me.

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 21:15:46 GMT, Frogleg > wrote:

>Follow up: My friend made Focaccia Stuffed Artichokes from the recipe
>he
>
>http://www.artichokes.org/recipes.html
>
>Some of the other recipes and dips look pretty good to me.

They sure do. Thanks for posting this.

Gar