Monday, May 28, 2012

Artichoke and asparagus

Last Saturday I went to pick up my fruit and veggie basket that I ordered from Bountiful Baskets.  It's been some time since I've done this, mainly because the deadline for ordering changed from Wednesday to Tuesday and for a long time I kept missing it.

So this week's basket had three lovely artichokes.  I couldn't help but see their perfectly round shape resemble that of a woman's breast.  You didn't know I had a wild side huh?  I am kidding, but I probably wouldn't have thought to compare the artichoke to a breast, unless I read about the sexy side of asparagus in 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle'.
The writer was talking about asparagus, how/when it's the best time/place to plant it and some characteristics of it:
"Underneath lies an octopus-shaped affair of chubby roots (called a crown) that stores enough starch through the winter to arrange the phallic send-up when winter starts to break.  The effect is rather sexy, if you're the type to see it that way.  Europeans of the Renaissance swore by it as an aphrodisiac, and the church banned it from nunneries."

I've never cooked an artichoke before, does anyone know of something easy and tastey to make with it?

1 comment:

Crazy About Ukraine said...

Those veggies look delicious! As for cooking artichoke....hmmm.... my family always just boiled them and ate them as a main course. We'd peel off the tough outer layer and then start eating the leaves underneath, dipping them in some sauce to spice up the meal. And then, of course, eventually we'd get down to the artichoke heart, my fav part :)

If you find a more interesting way to eat them, please post it! Unfortunately there is a dearth of such vegetables here in Ukraine, but maybe someday I'll be around them again.