classic artichokes

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There are times when you have to wonder the worth of a vegetable, when by the time you get to the part you can eat you have thrown almost two thirds into the compost bin. No vegetable is more challenging than the artichoke.

Artichokes are the enemy of wine altering the palate sensory perception so they are served more for home cooking than they are in our professional cooking. At the end of every artichoke season, with our fingers scratched and pricked and stained black from cleaning them we swear that we are never going to bother again and yet each year we can never resist. Artichokes and prickly pears are the irresistible thorny devils of the gastronomic world.

While cleaning them I always think with envy of the Venetians who can buy them in the markets of Venice, cleaned and ready to go swimming in acidulated water at every vegetable stand. These stall holders spend their spare time preparing the artichokes and they are plonked like goldfish into a plastic bag with a little of the acidulated water to keep them white while they are being carried home. How easy is that? It comes as a surprise that with modern technology and vaccing that some clever person hasn’t thought of selling them raw and ready to go, available from the refrigerator section of you local food store. We have discovered that people buy artichokes and never do anything with them because they are just not quite sure how to go about preparing them. 

When working for Rockford Wines and cooking for their Stonewall Table I arrived early prepared to put the love in and do my share of artichoke pickling. To my dismay there were six huge crates of artichokes in the produce coolroom. They were everywhere and I rightly guessed there would be more the next day and the day after that. Here it is necessary to add that in the Krondorf Garden they grow many heritage species of artichoke and the particularly nasty spiky one is called French Purple so unless you are a sadomasochist don’t bother planting them. Four crates and five hours later, my left hand well protected with my mesh glove only had a couple of cuts but my right hand was black to the palm and full of tiny cuts. I have filled the largest pot in the kitchen with prepared artichokes but the mound of compost is three huge buckets and the amount result for the effort niggles when I think what else could have been achieved in the same time.

The truth is the memory fades, especially when in summer they are added to anti pasta, turned into all manner of great dishes that because of the love that has been put into their preparation, take just minutes to prepare. The reason we rarely see fresh artichoke dishes in Australia like stuffed artichokes with rocklobster, crumbed and deep–fried and served with a good Hollandaise is the amount of labour it takes to prepare them from scratch. The other reason is that boiled plain and not put into oil they have a very short shelf–life, which is no encouragement because it leads to waste. 


We figure that the main reason people are reluctant to have a go at artichokes themselves is they don’t know how to go about it. We pickle them in two different ways one the tried and true method recommended by Michael Voumard from the brilliant little book we have often mentioned Preserving The Italian Way by Pietro Demaio P/B about $25 and the other and less traditional way is by the sous–vide method and we use a slightly modified technique from the equally brilliant book SOUS–VIDE CUISINE
Joan Roca and Salvador Brugués English edition published by Montagud Editores, H/B around $200. The advantage of sous–vide is they are cooked and packed in a single action and require much less oil so they work out considerably cheaper and there is a labour saving.

AO 29 AUGUST 2023