Adventures with Artichokes

I've only had one attempt at cooking artichokes before this week - a few years ago I was helping a friend prepare Christmas in July and we diligently followed every step in the Gourmet Traveller to be rewarded with some delicious stuffed artichokes. We got a good result but really felt out of our depth.

Now I'm doing it on my own - I want to know how I can prepare every single vegetable that comes into season and this looks like a good place to start. It's a great adventure adding a new dish or two to the repertoire! I guess I've always assumed that there would be a lot of waste when cooking with artichokes - but as I discovered as I began my research, even those stiff green outer leaves can be used to dip into a creamy sauce.

I'd like to include stuffed, fried and crumbed artichokes and yesterday I started with a simple Warm Chickpea and Artichoke Salad that I found over at tastespace.

It was quick and easy to prepare the artichokes, although I should have removed more of the outer leaves as they were still a bit tough to eat. The salad was a hearty meal for the warm night and it was full of flavour. I could almost imagine myself in a little restaurant somewhere near the mediterranean ocean, and yes the husband was impressed too. I'm already looking forward to our Garlic Sauteed Artichokes on Friday's menu!

Thumbs up for our Warm Chickpea and Artichoke Salad

Ingredients from our garden: parsley


I have to apologise for picture quality for the next week or so - I'm relying on an iphone just at the moment!