[Cooked Artichoke Hearts (Bottoms) Preliminary Cooking]
..first of all...just let me say that this whole section of Artichoke Hearts/Bottoms is incredibly time consuming for very little finished product...Julia starts the recipe by explaining that À BLANC is a solution of salted water with lemon juice and flour...then she goes on to warn you not to use aluminum or iron or your artichokes will be grey...
...and my book is a slightly different version from the one that I always link to and it calls these recipes Artichoke Bottoms...where this version calls all of these recipes 'hearts'...but they really do seem to be the bottom part of the artichoke...
...so with that...lets get started...
...Julia gives explicit directions for preparing the artichoke bottoms...starting with breaking the stem...
...then you remove the outer leaves...now this seemed really wasteful...as this was the part that we ate dipped in melted Earth Balance when we made the
VEGAN ARTICHAUTS AU NATUREL...
...once you get down to this cone shape...
...you cut off the top of the cone...
...then you trim the bottom by rotating it on a knife...
...then just prepare the other artichoke the same way...
...the trimmed bottom...
...the side view...
...and the top view...
...and Julia says to rub everything with lemon juice immediately so that it doesn't discolor...
...now...prepare the À BLANC...put the flour in a saucepan...
...and stir in cold water to make a smooth paste...
...beat in the rest of the water...lemon juice and salt...
...just comparing my artichoke bottom to Julias image...
...bring it to a boil and cook for 5 minutes or so...then add the artichoke bottoms...
...cover and cook at a simmer for a really long time...30-40 minutes...
...let them cool in the cooking liquid...
...then wash them carefully...
...and delicately remove the choke...
...choke successfully removed...
...and there you have it...one finished artichoke bottom...
...so do the same with your other artichokes...and you're ready to move on...all of this was just the preliminary cooking...
Substitutions:
...none so far...the next recipe will have substitutions...but just for this preliminary recipe...none...
Recipe here:
Mastering the Art of French Cooking pp. 428 - 431...it's a really long recipe...
