Last month I spent a weekend in Chicago with my friends Michael and Tommy. Like any typical vacation, we spent the majority of the time eating and drinking. In between brunch and a dinner party we ventured to the grocery store for rum to make mojitos. While we were there Tommy mentioned that he wanted to learn how to cook an artichoke. Artichokes look like beastly things but in actuality you can prepare them quite easily for a fancy looking starter. And my lesson was worth it, they have reported preparing them again!
Ingredients:
- Fresh artichokes
- butter
- lemon
- salt
Assembly:
Cut the bottom stem off the artichoke so it stands on its own. Then, using scissors, cut the sharp points off each leaf. Boil (or steam) the artichokes stem side up (I throw juiced lemons and salt into the water for flavor) until the stem is tender enough to easily insert a knife. Serve them with melted lemon butter ( I prefer mine with a little salt too). If you haven’t eaten an artichoke this way, you pluck each leaf off, dip in butter and scrap the ends off with your teeth. Once you reach the center, clean the choke with a knife and eat the artichoke heart!
Mod Meals on Mendenhall 
This was so delicious!!! We’ve made this twice already and both times were amazing. Thank you so much for the great recipes and keep ’em coming!
p.s. I love your purple picnic table. Okey dokie… (artichokie)
The best damn artichoke appetizer I’ve ever had! I do have one warning: if you’ve never cooked an artichoke before, the hair in the middle is one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen in a plant!
Once again, I can personally vouch for the yummy-ness of Cecelia’s artichokes. Cecelia – you need a “i like” (like facebook has) or “cecelia’s made this for me before and it was damn tasty” feature on this blog. 😉
[…] put together a quick mediterranean spread without much work. I threw the pita chips in a basket, prepared the artichoke, made a lemon butter dipping sauce and tossed cubes of feta cheese in olive oil, red pepper flakes, […]