But there is more to this wonderful vegetable. It’s not just about the preparation. It’s the whole procedure of how you eat artichokes: You scrape off the “meat” from the petals with your teeth, discard the petal and repeat until you reach the heart of the artichoke. Then remove the fine fuzzy hairs with a spoon or knife and enjoy this delicacy. Move on to the next artichoke. It’s a bit of a ceremony. You have to earn the heart by working trough the petals – but actually, sometimes eating the petals is almost more fun than eating the heart. Anyhow, I love eating with my hands, it gets messy, it has some wonderful flavor plus it’s such an incredibly healthy vegetable. Artichokes make it pretty high on my “favorite things to eat in the world” list, for sure.
I didn’t have any parsley at hand today, so I decided to simply steam them and eat them with a dip. Then I couldn’t decide for a dip and made two variations. Pick your favorite or have them both just as I did, enjoy!
Ingredients (4 people):
4 large artichokes
Lemon thyme butter dip:
1/2 cup melted butter
1 garlic clove
3 springs of thyme
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
Salt and pepper to taste
Shallot majoram dip:
1 shallot
1/3 white wine vinegar
3 tbsp crème fraiche
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
2 springs of majoram, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Prepare artichokes for steaming: Trim and peel stem and remove outer leaves. Depending on the type of artichoke, cut off top 1/3 of artichoke with a knife. This works better with the green pointy kind of artichokes, not so well for the round, purple kind. I used the purple ones and skipped that step and just snipped the remaining sharp and spiky tips using kitchen scissors. Finally, rub cut surfaces with lemon to prevent discoloration. Cook the artichoke in boiling salted water for 20-30 minutes until petals are soft and stem is still firm.

Shallot-majoram dip: Mince the shallot and majoram and whisk together with mustard, crème fraiche and vinegar, salt and pepper.
Lemon-thyme butter: Remove thyme from stem and whisk together with minced garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest and melted butter, salt and pepper.
