Here’s a simple photo tutorial on how to trim an artichoke down to the heart.
Sometimes you want to get straight to the heart of the matter, in this case the heart of the deliciously fresh artichokes that arrive each spring.
How to cut an artichoke to get this heart that you can use in all sorts of recipes such as: B. for artichoke salad poached in oil or sautéed artichoke hearts.
How to trim an artichoke
You will need a sharp paring knife, a large empty bowl for leaves, and a large bowl filled two-thirds full with ice water.
ingredients
-
artichokes
-
A fresh lemon cut in half
method
-
Squeeze half a lemon into a large bowl of water:
If you’re slicing more than one artichoke, squeeze half a lemon into a large bowl of ice water. You will be dropping trimmed artichokes into this bowl so they don’t brown while you work on others.
-
Break off outer green leaves, then peel off yellow petals:
Start by breaking off the artichoke leaves and tossing them into a large empty bowl. When you get to the yellow petals, just peel them off. Wipe the exposed surface with the other half of the sliced lemon.
-
Pull out the pink-tipped leaves:
Be careful when you get into the pink center of the artichoke leaves. There are sharp spines at the end of the inner leaves. Pull them out.
-
Use a paring knife to dig up the fuzzy thrush:
You should snip off the narrowest layer of the heart to get the full choke without slicing away too much of the delicious heart.
A note on this whole process. Don’t do it when there are distractions. You have to concentrate. You will use a sharp knife close to your hands. Because artichokes are tough raw, you can easily cut yourself if you take your eyes off what you’re doing.
-
Grate the sliced lemon over the exposed artichoke heart:
Once the fuzzy choke is out, smear the sliced lemon over the exposed heart.
This prevents the heart from oxidizing and turning brown. An artichoke is perfectly edible even when oxidized, it just isn’t particularly attractive.
-
Cut off all but the last inch of the stem:
Rub the lemon juice on the cut end.
-
Cut off the hard green exterior of the remaining heart:
Snip away from you as you turn the artichoke, trimming off only the tough green part, leaving the light green underneath. Rub this with lemon.
-
Finally, cut off the outer layer from the stem and spread the whole heart with lemon again:
Drop into the lemon water bath and move on to the next.
Here’s a tip: when your sliced lemon is gone, place it in the water bath, which will help keep the citric acid content of the bath high and keep the artichokes from browning.
