Artichokes with melted butter

Summer

The globe artichoke, no relation of the Jerusalem artichoke, has to be one of the most majestic of all edible flowering plants. You will see it presiding over the veg patch throughout July and August, with its silver-plated leaves, vigorous stem and sculpted flower bud. That’s the bit we like to cook and eat and it’s quite a wonderful thing. If you’re buying artichokes from the market, look out for firm, fist-sized (and bigger) buds that have tightly closed petals. And if you’re new to cooking artichokes, I recommend trying them this way, the simple way.

Ingredients

A good squeeze of lemon juice
1–2 artichokes per person
25g (1oz) unsalted butter per person
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Bring a very large pan of salted water to the boil, add a good squeeze of lemon juice (which helps to keep the artichokes’ colour), then add the artichokes. Cook until the base is tender to the point of a knife and the leaves pull away easily. This may take as little as 8–10 minutes for very freshly picked, young artichokes, or considerably longer for older, larger ones – up to 20–30 minutes or so. When the artichokes are cooked, remove them from the pan with tongs and stand them upside down so the water drains away from the hearts.

Set a small pan over a medium heat. Add the butter along with a pinch of salt and pepper. When the butter is melted and bubbling remove the pan from the heat and transfer to a warmed serving dish.

To eat, pull the leaves away from the artichokes, dip them in the butter and eat just like that. When you get to the tender inner leaves with the purple tips, you can remove them all at once – just eat the light-coloured parts of these leaves.

Use a knife or spoon to scrape out and remove the inedible fuzzy choke covering the artichoke heart. Cut the heart into pieces and dip that into the melted butter and eat, too.

Back to Membership