Sunday, July 27, 2008
Food, Recipes

Drizzle and sizzle

Grilled baby artichokes

Photos/Our Labor of Love for TRG

 

The grilled baby artichokes now on the menu at One Midtown Kitchen makes for one of my favorite seasonal dishes that begins with using a great vegetable in the peak of its short season.
One nice thing about this recipe is that it’s simple to make and easy to adjust. Just grab the number of artichokes you want and recalculate the recipe with a little bit of simple math. You can make enough to accompany a relaxing meal for one, a romantic meal for two or this summer’s big family reunion.

Picking the right artichokes is obviously one of the most important aspects of this dish. When buying any veggie, I like to head to my local farmer’s market for the best fresh picks of the season. Be sure to choose artichokes with a nice, deep green color and tight leaves. Good artichokes should feel a bit heavy for their size.

Baby artichokes are one of my favorite vegetables. I love them because the entire vegetable is edible—there is no choke and no peeling of the artichoke. All you need to do is simply pull off the tough outer leaves and trim the stem. Afterwards, blanch the artichokes in salted water and white wine with carrots, celery, onion and a bit of fresh thyme. 

Cook the artichokes in this mixture until they are tender. When they are cooked just right, the artichokes will have a small undercooked sliver in the center. That step is the hardest part to gauge, but it should only take about eight minutes to get the artichokes cooked to perfection.
After that, all you need to do is drain the artichokes and spread everything on a sheet pan to cool. After cooking artichokes but before grilling them, you should let them cool as long as possible, preferably overnight. The colder the artichokes, the better they hold up on the grill.

Right before grilling, toss the cooled artichokes with olive oil, salt and pepper to whatever degree you would like them seasoned. Roll them around on a hot grill until they nicely charred. When you take them off the grill, let them cool off until they get to room temperature. Be sure to drizzle them with a touch of extra virgin oil and sea salt before serving. After these simple steps, you have produced one of my culinary representations of spring.

At ONE. midtown kitchen, we serve the room-temperature artichokes with a dip of ricotta cheese spiked with lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. We also accompany them with a petite salad of watercress and jicama that is dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. This adds a nice touch too, but with such a well-prepared and characteristically seasonal vegetable, you hardly even need an entrée. SP
Tom Harvey is the executive chef at One Midtown Kitchen. 559 Dutch Valley Road. 404-892-4111. www.onemidtownkitchen.com.
 

Grilled Baby Artichokes

Ingredients:

• Artichokes
• White wine
• Salt
• One yellow onion, peeled and quickly chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and quickly chopped
• 4 ribs of celery, washed and quickly chopped
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme

Instructions:

Begin with the desired number of artichokes in a large pot, as this recipe depends on how many artichokes are being prepared. Onto the artichokes, pour cups of water, covering the vegetable with seven to eight inches of water. For each cup of water, add ¼ cup wine. For each gallon of liquid, add ½ cup salt. Add chopped carrots, onion, celery and thyme. Bring this mixture to a boil. Cook for eight minutes. Let cool. After cooling, discard carrots, celery and onion. Toss the cooled artichokes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roll around on a hot grill until charred. Allow to cool to room temp.