Dinner Thursday: Artichokes with Lemon Butter

Every Thursday I post a recipe I’ve successfully made during the week using (mostly) non-processed, grocery store ingredients.

The beauty of a good artichoke is that it requires virtually no preparation.  My mother used to just chop off the stem and steam them whole.  I do a little more, peeling back the tough outer leaves and cutting the top of the leaves, but really the taste doesn’t change much if at all.  It just looks a little more attractive.

Artichokes are heary enough to stand in for meat, and make a fabulous no-work meal if you pair them with some high-quality frozen ravioli in butter and a salad.  I like the ravioli I find in local specialty Italian stores best, but Whole Foods and even less high-end supermarkets now carry some good varieties.  Serve artichokes with a side of melted butter and lemon. 

Ingredients:

1 artichoke per person

2-3 cups water

1 tablespoon of butter per person

juice of 1/2 lemon per person

Cut the stems from the bottom of the artichoke, being careful to preserve the heart.  Tear off the toughest outer leaves and cut off the spiky tops.  Place the artichokes in a steamer basket over a pot with 2-3 cups of water.  Steam for 35-45 minutes, or until artichokes are tender.  (Simply Recipes offers terrific step by step instructions with photos on preparing a whole artichoke; they use a boil method, which also works well and is no more work than steaming.) 

Other artichoke recipes I want to try:

• Moroccan-Style Artichoke Stew from OrganicToBe.org.
• Lemon-Mint Braised Artichokes from Epicurious.com.
• Spaghetti with Artichokes from Bleeding Espresso.
• Fried Baby Artichokes from Steamy Kitchen.