Globe Or French Artichokes

A portion of the undeveloped blossom of the French artichoke is the part that is eaten. The plant has leaves from three to four feet long. The flower stem is from three to four feet high and branched. Each branch supports a blossom very similar to the large purple thistles so common in August by the roadside and in pastures. The broadened axis of the flower is the principal edible portion. This is the part put up in cans for exportation to this country, and is known as the artichoke heart or bottom. The top of this broad axis is covered by a mass of purple flowerets, which are removed after cooking and before sending to the table. Upon the sides of this axis are several rows, one above the other, of sepals, which together constitute the calyx. A portion of the lower ends of these sepals is also edible. The artichokes are cut for the table before the bud is expanded enough to show the bluish-purple color within.

Preparation For Cooking

To prepare for cooking, pull off all coarse or discolored sepals, and cut the stem close to the sepals. Set to cook in boiling salted water. Remove and drain as soon as the "heart" is tender. Pull back the sepals, and with a small spoon take out the purple flowerets. The outer ones resemble the sepals in shape, the inner ones correspond exactly to the purple part of a thistle.

Serving Artichokes

To serve plain, cut into quarters, lengthwise, and dispose on a dish provided with a drainer, or, lacking this, upon a hot napkin. Serve the sauce in a dish apart. A portion of the sepals and bottom compose each service. The artichokes are sometimes thus cut before cooking. Any sauce appropriate for asparagus is appropriate for artichokes, as, when hot, provide Holiandaise, Bechamel, or drawn butter; or, when cold, French or mayonnaise dressing. In serving individual portions, pour the sauce over the bottom or upon the plate beside the portion. To eat, pull off the sepals with the fingers, dip the lower end into the sauce, and draw between the closed teeth. The "bottom" is eaten with a fork. As a salad, tongue, chicken, eggs, cucumber, lettuce, or endive, may be added to increase the bulk. The sepals would be used only as a garnish.

A particularly elegant way of serving the hearts is with forcemeat: "stuffed artichoke bottoms" would be the designation. Chicken forcemeat, or a forcemeat such as is used for stuffed tomatoes or eggplant, is heaped upon the parboiled-and-cleaned "heart," which is then cooked in the oven with frequent basting. A rich sauce accompanies the dish.

Breaded Artichoke Bottoms, Fried

Remove the bottoms from the can, drain and dry on a soft, clean cloth. There will be six or eight bottoms in the can. Beat one egg; add two table-spoonfuls of milk and beat again. Dip the bottoms, one by one, in the egg and then roll in sifted bread crumbs. Fry in deep fat to an amber color; drain on soft paper and dispose on a hot napkin, set on a hot dish. Serve with sauce tartare in a mayonnaise bowl. Serve as a vegetable entree either with roast turkey, fillet of beef, etc., or just after this course. To prepare the bread crumbs, remove the crust from a stale loaf (baked twenty-four hours), and press the bread through a colander and then through a sieve of moderately fine mesh.

Artichoke Bottoms, With Spinach Quenelles

Chop, very fine, boiled spinach. For three-fourths a cup of the prepared spinach melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan. Add two tablespoonfuls of flour, one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of paprika, and half a teaspoonful of sugar, and cook until well yellowed. Then add a tablespoonful of cream and the hot spinach. Stir and cook until the boiling-point is reached, then remove from the fire, and beat in, one at a time, two eggs. Butter as many table or dessert spoons as will stand side by side in a frying-pan of boiling salted water. Fill these with the spinach mixture, rounding it a little on top. Set them into the water, and let simmer until the mixture is firm. Remove from the spoons with care, drain on a cloth or in a colander, and set one upon each artichoke bottom, made hot in well-seasoned broth and drained. Pour over the whole a cup of Hollandaise sauce, and garnish each quenelle with a slice of hard-cooked egg.

Artichokes A La Italienne

Wash, trim, and quarter the artichokes, and boil them in salted water until tender (about forty minutes). Dispose on a dish with the leaves outward. Pour over eight or nine artichokes a cup of white sauce, to which half a cup of cooked mushrooms and two tablespoonfuls of butter have been added. The sauce may be made of the water in which the mushrooms were cooked and cream, half and half.

Artichoke Bottoms, With Cauliflower, Etc

1 can of artichoke bottoms

1 small cooked cauliflower

½ cup, each, of cooked string beans, flageolet, peas, asparagus tips and figures cut from carrots

Saute the artichoke bottoms in hot butter until well browned on both sides and very hot. All the vegetables should be hot. Dispose the bottoms on hot individual plates or in cocottes or china ramekins; set a floweret of cauliflower above and around it some of the other vegetables. Set a rounding teaspoonful of thick Hollandaise sauce above and serve at once.