Never miss a post! Subscribe via RSS or Subscribe via EMAIL.

The truth is: I’ve never had artichoke until a week ago in Hawaii. After being here on earth for 30 years. One of the morning shows yesterday had a health/fitness guy guest who kept talking about the benefits of fresh coconut juice and the host asked “Uhm, okay, but how do I actually open that?” [pointing to the shelled green coconut] And I never occurred to me that there are people who don’t know how to open a coconut, take the flesh of the coconut, and get the milk from the coconut. How some people react when faced with a green coconut was how I reacted upon the pressure to prepare artichoke. So I’ll forgive you now if you look at me with that questioning look of “Did you live under a rock?”

The thing is, I felt for artichoke like how I would feel if you put a newborn baby on my lap. I’d think it’s incredibly cute but what the heck do I do now?!” Panic! And I’m serious (and just to abate those who know me personally: I am not pregnant, ok?) when I say that.

Make no mistake, they’re undeniably amusing to look at and photograph, but I had no clue what to do with them. Never bought them so I never made anything with them. We’ve had the canned ones to make dips but never the fresh one.

When our friends in Hawaii (our awesome hosts) served us a steamed artichoke as part of dinner, I took the opportunity to taste it and learn how to eat it. The latter is definitely important or I would have tried to cook it until the whole thing is soft!

I think I cut it too much by the stem. What do you think?

When our friends prepared the artichoke, they boiled it with garlic between the leaves. But they weren’t garlic-insertion-happy as I was:

Can you say ARTICHOKE CONCENTRATION CAMP? But it’s pretty!

I added the juice of half a lemon in the water, plus salt, peppercorns and ground pepper.

I’m not sure what the heck I was thinking! Is that enough water?

Oh well. I get distracted by its beauty.

I don’t know if it’s cooked either.

Perhaps overdone?

It didn’t taste half as good as what we were served in Hawaii, and don’t tell me it’s because it was in Hawaii! Haha. This was a jumbo artichoke that we got from sprouts. It wasn’t as fleshy as I thought it would be. Any ideas why? Is it because it’s big?

I’d love to cook more artichokes but I still sit here helpless as to what else we can do with it. Do you have any suggestions? Should I get the smaller ones? Do I just boil them? With what? For how long? Point me to your recipes! I would love that. I see all sorts of recipes on the internet but most of them are for the canned artichokes.

We’ve only had the artichoke with mayo. Someone suggested a thousand island dressing. I’m open to more choices. :-) Thanks!!!