Stuffed Artichokes

This recipe was quite tasty and kind of fun. With sun-dried tomatoes, the stuffing is untraditional and delicious. I'd never cooked artichokes before, so it was kind of an experiment. If you've never eaten artichokes before: don't eat the entire thing. Scrape the fleshy bit off the fibrous leaves using your teeth.

Random facts:  artichokes are a thistle.  They can be made into an herbal tea or flavor liquor.

Stuffed Artichokes

Adapted from The Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook

Ingredients

2 medium artichokes

salt

lemon slices

1 small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

2 oz mushrooms, chopped

1 small carrot, grated

1 oz sun-dried tomatoes, sliced. If in oil, drain. If not, rehydrate in warm water.

leaves from a sprig of thyme

about 2 or 3 tbsp water

ground black pepper

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

extra olive oil, to cook

fresh parsley, chopped, to garnish

1. Boil the artichokes in salted water with the lemons slices for about 30 minutes or until a leaf pulls easily from the base. Strain through a colander, set artichokes upside down and let cool.

Boiling the artichokes with lemon

1. Gently fry the onion and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes, then add the mushrrooms, carrot, sun-dried tomatoes, and thyme.

Fryng onions

1. Stir in the water, season well and cook for another 5 minutes, then mix in the bread crumbs.

2. Pull the leaves apart on the artichokes and pull out the purple-tipped central leaves. Feel free to eat these. Using a spoon, scrape out the hairy choke. Be careful when you do this. With my first artichoke, I didn't know how much to scrape out and accidentally scraped out the whole bottom. Just get the hairy parts. I thought the artichokes were fascinating: they had layers and layers like a Russian doll; they reminded me of squid or dinosaur beaks.

Artichoke with choke removed

1. Spoon the stuffing into the center of each articoke and push the leaves back into shape. Put the artichokes in an ovenproof dish and pour a little oil into the center of each one.

2. One hour before serving, heat the oven to 375 F and bake the artichokes for about 20-25 minutes until heated through. Garnish with the parsley. Eat!

-Esme