Author Notes: Once, I spent a couple of hours watching Marcella Hazan fix an artichoke dish from her newest cookbook (at that time) An entire room full of students hyptnotically watched her peel the leaves off an artichoke one by one until she had a pile next to her. We were all wondering the same thing. Finally, someone asked “What are you going to do with those?” She looked puzzled for a few seconds and then announced that she was going to throw them away…”What would I do with them?” Now I understand that the artichoke heart was all she needed. If you have a fresh, just picked artichoke , the heart is pure gold! – dymnyno —dymnyno
Serves: 4 artichoke halves
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Usually we’d eat the leaves, but this recipe focuses on the best part of the vegetable: the heart.
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The inner leaves are tender enough to shred and eat raw in a salad if you don’t want to throw them away. Just make sure to get rid of the prickers!
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Right before you get to the hairy choke itself, you’ll come across these lovely pink leaves.
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Be careful paring down the sides of the heart where you’ve removed the leaves — we don’t want any artichoke-induced wounds!
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Use a peeler to trim the stem, which is not only edible but delicious!
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Rubbing the artichoke with a lemon as you trim helps keep it from turning brown.
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To get rid of the choke, use a spoon to pry away the hairy filaments.
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A 15-minute steam did the trick, rendering our artichoke hearts tender but not mushy.
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While the hearts steamed, we whipped up the dipping sauce.
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Lime zest and juice add even more acidity to creme fraiche.
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Some cumin and a sprinkling of salt, and that’s it!
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Our frying station is ready.
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After dipping each heart in beaten egg and panko, you gently lay it in a pan with just a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
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If the crust browns too quickly, make sure to adjust the heat.
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If you double or triple the recipe, still try to work in small batches — the hearts will brown better.
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Heart of Gold
Print RecipeIngredients
- Artichoke Hearts
- 2 globe artichokes, preferable with some stalk.
- 1/2 lemon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup dry bread crumbs
- Creamy Cumin-Lime Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 cup creme fraiche
- 1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
- finely grated zest of a lime
- juice of a lime
- Salt
Instructions
Artichoke Hearts
- Prepare the artichokes: Peel all the leaves off the choke. Peel the stalk and with a paring knife neatly trim the bottom where you removed the leaves.
- Cut the trimmed artichokes in half vertically and with a spoon remove the hairy choke. Be careful when cutting in half to evenly cut the stem, too.
- Rub immediately with lemon juice so the artichoke doesn’t get brown (which happens very quickly!). Steam the hearts until tender. Time will vary depending on the size of the hearts (about 15 minutes).
- Dip each artichoke half into the egg and then into the bread crumbs.
- Fry in the olive oil over medium heat until golden.
- Set on paper towels to absorb the oil.
Creamy Cumin-Lime Dipping Sauce
- Mix all the ingredients together, adding salt to taste.
- Serve the golden hearts warm with the creamy dipping sauce.
- Your Best Artichoke Recipe Contest Winner!
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
