Just a quickie tonight. With the exception of the artichokes, this is what we had for Dinner tonight - together with salmon and crevettes! We love collecting fruit and vegetables direct from our garden and greenhouse.
Must confess though, until our last visit to France we had never bought/eaten artichokes. So come on, 'fess up' have you? We had no idea how to select, cook or eat them. The first issue was resolved by asking an elderly French lady for help with selection at the hypermarket and the rest was down to GOOGLE!
David (hubby) isn't fond of green stuff but he really enjoyed his artichoke experience. We were very pleased to find our local greengrocer has just started to stock artichokes (as an experiment). We're hooked and hope others might follow our lead so that artichokes may become more readily available locally.
If, like us, you don't know what to do with an artichoke, check out the site/recipe we followed and do give them a try .......... I can't believe we've reached our grand old ages without sampling this treat. It takes time to eat and there's a lot of debris, but as a starter when dining with friends it can only be a hit!!
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_cook_and_eat_an_artichoke/
I can't show any artwork for a few days unfortunately, hence the vegetables :-)
Well, I have had artichokes before and even tried to grow them one year. That attempt was less than successful because our climate isn't quite suited for them and we had an early frost. Do you think that's why you don't see them in your markets? I mean your climate. Could you grow them in your greenhouse? They do get tall and take up a bit of room and only return one main choke with a couple of smaller side buds though so not much return for the space used. Or maybe you could start them early in the greenhouse for planting out later.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of them and, as you say, they're a lot of work with a lot of debris left behind. But, my not caring for them so much won't hurt your cause of trying to get people to ask for them in your supermarkets!
Now, what are crevettes? I looked on google but only found French websites and didn't bother to translate them. I did find a You Tube video and they look like shrimp???
Have fun at your workshop!
Would makes a nice still life all that colour. I have eaten atichoke but wouldn't have a clue how to cook it :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jan
ReplyDeleteI think growing artichokes is quite tricky in the UK - as you say they are pretty big and they aren't frost hardy. From what I understand you have to wait for the second year before the 'chokes' are edible? But I did read that you can cook the leaf shoots also (like celery) which may make them more commercial.
I enjoyed them, but they taste so much like cauliflower that I wouldn't have them often - more a novelty starter if having friends round for a meal - can be dragged out for quite a while!!
OK - crevettes are prawns (shrimps) but for some reason the ones bought in France are soooooooo much nicer than the rubbery textured prawns we find in our English fishmongers/supermarkets.
Hi Chrissy - I did briefly consider a still life .... but nah!! I can't get enthusiastic about non-four legged subjects :-)
I didn't taste artichoke until my 20s or 30s. I really like them but don't like the mess of the stringy choke. We just dipped them in mayonnaise. Our friends liked them with melted butter. Artichoke dip is really good too but usually made from the canned artichokes.
ReplyDeleteI really like marinated artichokes (store bought) in my salads. A little oil heavy from the jar but you wouldn't have to add dressing/oil & vinegar topping on the salad.