Right, grown the artichokes, and fine looking plants they are, if a
bit scarey.

Cooking
When I was in Tudela I had lovely stews of whole baby artichokes and
broad beans but when I tried it last night with golf ball sized ones
they are like fibre glass. I stewed for 40 minutes.

Whats wrong? Surely they cant water them more than me, Spains dry,
isnt it.

crosspost to gardening, they might have an input, clever lot them
gardeners
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

"The Reid" wrote in message
...
Right, grown the artichokes, and fine looking plants they are, if a
bit scarey.

Cooking
When I was in Tudela I had lovely stews of whole baby artichokes and
broad beans but when I tried it last night with golf ball sized ones
they are like fibre glass. I stewed for 40 minutes.

Whats wrong? Surely they cant water them more than me, Spains dry,
isnt it.

crosspost to gardening, they might have an input, clever lot them
gardeners
--
Mike Reid

I can only speak for here, but we snap off or pare off the tough bits that
most assuredly are there before cooking. Once that's done you can even eat
them raw with lemon and oil.
Globe (but not violettas) will also have a choke, which is easily removed by
gently opening the flower and scraping with a teaspoon. I do all that and
dump them into a bath of lemon water to avoid yucky colors.

Following up to sw

No clue here, but I've just discovered a small artichoke nestling in the
leaves of mine, so I await further instructions. I wonder if I can make
it serve four? This vegetable growing is much more exciting than
flowers!

If it goes like mine, it will soon be 2 or 3. I'm trying 2 big ones
tonight, by the traditional method, with a parsley and chive sauce.

One of mine BTW is coming up bright purple! It seems a seed jumped
packets.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

Following up to Judith Umbria

Globe (but not violettas) will also have a choke

I have not seen violettas on sale here, but they are in my Italian
cookbooks, I think Violetta de Chioggia is the full name?

Perhaps I have to remove a lot more stuff.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

In article , The Reid
writes
When I was in Tudela I had lovely stews of whole baby artichokes and
broad beans but when I tried it last night with golf ball sized ones
they are like fibre glass. I stewed for 40 minutes.

Whats wrong? Surely they cant water them more than me, Spains dry,
isnt it.

We never try to eat whole globes - the petals are almost always too
tough and fibrous for that - even at golf ball size. We wait until the
globe is mature enough to be ripe but not over-ripe. They need to be a
bit larger than a cricket or tennis ball. We pick the whole head, but
separate off the circle of fleshy pad at the base of the petals - that
is the artichoke (IOHO). If some of the larger petals appear to still
have an eatable amount of flesh on them, we cook those too then eat the
tender part off the base, but not the whole petal.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

"The Reid" wrote in message
news
Following up to Judith Umbria

Globe (but not violettas) will also have a choke

I have not seen violettas on sale here, but they are in my Italian
cookbooks, I think Violetta de Chioggia is the full name?

Perhaps I have to remove a lot more stuff.
--
Mike Reid

The violetta tends to need much less preparation, BUT if you dress them with
oil and garlic the garlic turns bright turquoise. You need a sense of humor
or adventure.
When those globes are fresh, you can snap off tough parts with your hands.
Continue until you reach the thin inner leaves, then cut the top off to
eliminate those spiny bits. Then open, scrape out the choke and there's
your lovely, easy to eat artichoke.
Very young ones are delicious sliced very thin and eaten in salad, or as I
once did on a picnic in Morocco, and I was shaking my head no the entire
time, just salt and munch like an apple. It turns out a nod-nod, yes-yes
experience.
So you think you may have one violetta? Those are sometimes called carciofi
romani here, and that's not Chioggia, maybe there's more than one variety?

The Reid wrote:

Right, grown the artichokes, and fine looking plants they are, if a
bit scarey.

Cooking
When I was in Tudela I had lovely stews of whole baby artichokes and
broad beans but when I tried it last night with golf ball sized ones
they are like fibre glass. I stewed for 40 minutes.

Whats wrong? Surely they cant water them more than me, Spains dry,
isnt it.

crosspost to gardening, they might have an input, clever lot them
gardeners


Did you remove the fibrous 'choke'? And did they when you had them in
Spain? I'm no choke expert, but it seems to me this may be the problem
even if they were baby ones.,
//
Jim

The message
from The Reid contains these words:

Right, grown the artichokes, and fine looking plants they are, if a
bit scarey.

Cooking
When I was in Tudela I had lovely stews of whole baby artichokes and
broad beans but when I tried it last night with golf ball sized ones
they are like fibre glass. I stewed for 40 minutes.

I can't imagine the whole leaf ever being edible, even from baby
ones.Are you sure they were whole baby artichokes, not fonds
d'artichaut? That's the yummy base of a grown up artichoke, after you've
picked off the leaves.

Janet.

Following up to Alan Gould

We never try to eat whole globes - the petals are almost always too
tough and fibrous for that - even at golf ball size.

It seems i'm not trimming enough, the big ones last night were fine
eaten by the traditional method of teeth scraping, if you know what I
mean.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

Following up to Judith Umbria

So you think you may have one violetta? Those are sometimes called carciofi
romani here, and that's not Chioggia, maybe there's more than one variety?

My book says Carciofi spinosi from Sicily, Romanesco from Rome and
violetta di Chioggia from the north.

It describes Chioggia as "purple leafed with yellowish hearts". My
renegade has very similar grey green leaves to the routine variety but
purple flowers. I am told (in gardening ng) there are purple
varieties.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

Following up to Jim W

Did you remove the fibrous 'choke'? And did they when you had them in
Spain? I'm no choke expert, but it seems to me this may be the problem
even if they were baby ones.,
//

you dont have to if they are very small but tough leaves are still a
problem however small AFAICS
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

Following up to Janet Baraclough

I can't imagine the whole leaf ever being edible, even from baby
ones.Are you sure they were whole baby artichokes, not fonds
d'artichaut? That's the yummy base of a grown up artichoke, after you've
picked off the leaves.

No, whole baby artichokes. I'm going to go back to Tudela and speak to
the chef. My current thinking is that you have to peel off a *lot* of
outer leaves.
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)

The Reid wrote:

Following up to sw

No clue here, but I've just discovered a small artichoke nestling in the
leaves of mine, so I await further instructions. I wonder if I can make
it serve four? This vegetable growing is much more exciting than
flowers!

If it goes like mine, it will soon be 2 or 3. I'm trying 2 big ones
tonight, by the traditional method, with a parsley and chive sauce.

One of mine BTW is coming up bright purple! It seems a seed jumped
packets.

Probably a GM blackcurrant-flavour artichoke. You can serve it candied
for dessert ;-)

regards
sarah


--
Waist deep, neck deep
We'll be drowning before too long
We're neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the damned fools keep yelling to push on

"sw" wrote in message news:1fwqoqz.e4rrsm18ysqp6N%


Probably a GM blackcurrant-flavour artichoke. You can serve it candied
for dessert ;-)

LOL

Following up to sw

One of mine BTW is coming up bright purple! It seems a seed jumped
packets.

Probably a GM blackcurrant-flavour artichoke. You can serve it candied
for dessert ;-)

eek!
--
Mike Reid
"Art is the lie that reveals the truth" P.Picasso
Wasdale, landscape photos, London & the Thames path "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk"
Spain, food and walking "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" (see web for email)