Sacha writes
On 29/7/06 08:37, in article ,
"Adam" wrote:

snip

Does anyone have any experience with cardoon? Any hints or tips for how to
get the best out of it? Any recipes?

We grow ours in the garden for ornament only and they are indeed, very
striking and beautiful plants. But if you want to eat them, I think it's
the leaf part only and they have to be wrapped in cardboard to blanch them,
or so I read at one time. The general feeling appears to be that it's a bit
of a faff and that you're better of growing artichokes for food and cardoons
for ornament.

Vilmorin-Andrieux "The Vegetable Garden" (first pub 1885): "The blanched
stalks or ribs of the inner leaves are chiefly used as a winter
vegetable, as well as the main root, which is thick, fleshy, tender and
of an agreeable flavour. Cooked in a delicate way, it is excellent, but
with the ordinary cook, this, like many another good vegetable, is
easily spoiled. The degree of tenderness to which it is boiled should be
studied, and the sauce should not be rank with salt and spice after the
vulgar fashion"

"Unlike the Artichoke, which is almost always propagated by means of
offsets, the Cardoon is always raised from seed....if treated in the
same way as celery [it] will generally be found to succeed; the only
difference there is in the mode of blanching, which requires more care
than in blanching celery" He suggests wrapping in matting surrounded by
hay so only the tips of the leaves are visible and then earthing up, but
if you have only a few plants, then use a drainpipe.

He refers to several varieties - Prickly Tours, Smooth Solid, Long
Spanish, Artichoke-leaved and Red-stemmed.
--
Kay