Help wanted -- spiffier stuffed artichokes.

I've been following a fairly simple recipe for stuffed artichokes, and wonder if this assembly could suggest some improvements -- Janet loves them. My current version:

Stuffed Artichokes

Ingredients

2 large artichokes
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 TBS Italian parsley, minced
2 TBS grated Pamesan cheese
6 TBS olive oil
Black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup water
3/4 tsp salt

Technique

1. Lightly coat slow cooker with olive oil.
2. Remove stems from artichoke. Tear off the outer two or three layers of outer leaves. Cut off 1/2 to 1 inch from the tops of the leaves. Open the center; pull out the thorny leaves which are usually tinged purple. Scoop out any fuzz.
3. Mix the bread crumbs, galic, parsley, Pamesan cheese, black pepper and olive oil.
4. Stuff a small amount of filling between the leaves, starting from the outside. Sprinkle the top with any remaining stuffing.
5. Pour water in slow cooker, add salt and stir. Stand the artichokes in the water, and drizzle with olive oil.
6. Cover and cook for 6 hours on low [four in our cooker] or until leaves test tender.

Serve with Petite Sirah or Sauvignon Blanc.

Thanks in advance, Bob

Step 5- use some vegetable stock, white wine, minced shallots, and a bit of chopped tomato as the cooking medium.


edit: Petite Sirah? No %$#@ing way.

Might be a good idea to tie with string. Used to do that in France.

I love artichokes and cannot see why anyone would want to stuff them......they are a perfect food for me. However, this spring and summer and most recently...two weeks ago, every artichoke I have purchased has been awful. This is the first time in all my cooking years I have dealt with this. I like to buy large artichokes, with tight leaves, good color and fresh stems. After I cook them....which has been taking forever, they are awful. The outer leaves are thick and inedible. We take off almost half of the choke before getting into leaves we can eat, only to find cooked insects which appear to look like aphids. Has anyone else been experiencing this? Since we live in CA, I am assuming that we are getting our chokes from the Castro Valley area.

At the moment, Market Basket here in Northern New Jersey has super artichokes -- the Whole Foods in Ridgewood were just a step behind.

Sorry to hear they're not so good in California.

Thanks for the poaching tip, Stuart -- that's sounds like a winner.

PS?

Works ok for Janet and if it works for her ... well, a happy diner makes a happy cook in my world. And vice versa.

Janet is a lucky woman, Bob!

Bob, why tie them with string? Won't that slow the cooking?

Under higher temps with steam I can see the benefit, perhaps, of making the artichoke cook more evenly.

But under low temps, I don't see the point.

Am I missing something?

Regards, Bob

[Jenise]

Bob, for large artichokes, I'd probably need twice as much bread crumbs as you're using. Also, I add crumbled cooked sausage and finely diced onions, or if going all veg, I add fennel seeds and chopped parsley.

My cooking method is quite a bit different from yours. I do an outer trim, then cook them in water dosed with bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic and a little olive oil for tenderizing to where they're about half cooked. I then drain and cool them and cut out the choke before stuffing. I use a low wide soup bowl as a form so that the cooked leaves don't splay back completely, and start stuffing from the outside in--a little stuffing on each leaf, and what doesn't fit goes in the middle. They are then drizzled with a few drops more olive oil and wrapped in foil to bake about 45 minutes until tender--they'll have absorbed enough (flavored!!) water in the pre-cooking stage to finish, and the olive oil will keep them from drying out.

I like them poached in herb/garlic/oil/white wine mix

I like them stuffed with good ricotta mixed with grated parm, a bit of shredded ham or bacon, sauteed onions,garlic, lots of minced herbs, black pepper. Baked with a bit of stock in the pan so they don't dry out

Thanks, Jenise. Lots to think about -- but what do you do with the chokes?

Thanks Christina -- there are some appealing additions there. Bob

Wow, thanks Cynthia [stammering a bit].

What Christina said- I braise moreso than poach.

[Jenise]

Thanks, Jenise. Lots to think about -- but what do you do with the chokes?

As I said above, "I then drain and cool them and cut out the choke before stuffing."

Sorry, Jenise. My lack of artichoke architecture is showing.

I now understand the "choke" is the fuzzy stuff, the bristles and seed-down or ‘choke.

Before I read your post, I thought the heart or the base was the "choke".

Thanks for helping me set myself straight. Bob

Bob,

Your recipe is exactly the same as mine...but I never thought to use my slow cooker!! What a fantastic idea!

I love all the additional tips everyone is giving...I guess it's time for me to make stuffed artichokes. YUM!

Bob, a few years ago I threw fancy dinner party and stuffed them with escargot (prepared with lots of butter, shallots, and a hint of sherry). It was sort of a "double-whammy" appetizer.


Christina, your stuffing sounds devine!

"Step 5- use some vegetable stock, white wine, minced shallots, and a bit of chopped tomato as the cooking medium. "

Great suggestion, Stuart. The artichokes were great, and I used the stock, etc. as the base of a vegetable soup -- lots of different veggies from one of my periodic attacks of neatness evidencing itself in cleaning out the fridge.

The soup was delicious. Thanks.

Delighted, Bob!

I've been following a fairly simple recipe for stuffed artichokes, and wonder if this assembly could suggest some improvements -- Janet loves them. My current version:

Stuffed Artichokes

That recipe is exactly why I grew up disliking artichokes. I'm sure you make them with much more finesse, but the Italians in Northern New Jersey must be genetically encoded to turn artichokes into soggily breadcrumbed, oily messes. My mother, my grandmothers, my aunts, my brother in his deli, even my ex-second-wife who was part Polish and should have known better, just completely ruined any and all artichokes which crossed their paths ... except for the baby ones which they steamed and ate whole. (Head over to Corrado's in Clifton for those when they are in season, Bob. In fact, if you haven't checked out Corrado's, you should. Very good produce and an excellent selection thereof.)

I like them just steamed enough and then I either eat them with a little salt and pepper or get creative with dips.

Corrados used to be a wonderful place to buy food, Gary. They used to have an open stand down by the railroad tracks, and you could get really fresh food at great prices.

Prices are still fairly low but their quality has slipped over the past 15 years, ever since they moved and opened their big wholesale type store.

They are opening a new upscale store in Wayne a couple of miles from our house. We both hope they go back to the good old days, but except for checking out their home winemaking supplies and buying some discount wines, we've walked through the produce areas, and haven't purchased anything in many years.

Sad. We used to make weekly shopping trips to the railroad track store and buy for a group of neighbors as well.

PS: It's worth mentioning that half the time Janet likes the steamed style, half the time she likes the stuffed. Always a treat if the artichokes are very good or excellent.