Artichokes

Gregory McNamee in Moveable Feasts: The History, Science, and Lore of Food says that artichokes were relatively unknown in the US outside of immigrant groups until in the 1960s California growers pushed to introduce it to the rest of the country. My father adored artichokes. And we always had them cut in half, boiled, and served with a bowl of mayonnaise. We never had them any other way. When I went to school at UC Santa Cruz, I would stop by a big white farmhouse on highway 1 between Watsonville and Castroville and pick up a whole crate of artichokes for him every time I drove home.

In Pittsburgh fresh artichokes are expensive but the Italians here use lots of small marinated artichokes in glass jars. When were were in Spain on the Camino de Santiago, I ordered many "menestras de verduras" or spring vegetable stews, one of whose many ingredients were baby artichokes. I kept thinking that the concept of the menestra with fava beans, asparagus, mushrooms, artichokes and other spring vegetables was a good one but that the Spaniards were simply overcooking them. I tried it when I got home and maybe I just don't like artichokes in my soup.

In Istanbul they prepare the artichokes differently: they remove the leaves and carve out the choke so that they are left with a goblet like heart. You could buy them in the markets already prepared like this. Monique Jansen has a photo of an artichoke seller preparing them. That seems to me to be the best way to buy them. No waste. On the other hand, you lose all that vegetation for your compost.

Poopa Dweck (what an extraordinary name!) in her book Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews has a recipe for Raw Artichoke Salad in which you trim the artichokes pretty much down to the heart and tender inner leaves and then you dress it with lemon juice, salt and olive oil. The next time we have artichokes, I'll have to try it. At least there is no danger of overcooking it.