Steamed Artichokes With Mayonnaise-Mustard Sauce

Submitted by Heirloom Tomato

"Flavored steaming water adds succulence to these. The dipping sauce is a little different from plain mayonnaise or melted butter (although those are very good, too). Fresh artichokes should have tightly closed heads and not be withered-looking. To make a nice presentation, cut an inch off the top of the artichokes with a sharp knife, and snip the thorny tips from the leaves with kitchen shears. Cut the stems off flush with the bottom of the artichokes, then cut off the dark, dried-out ends of the stems. Steam the green sections of the stems right along with the artichokes. Sometimes the stems taste good and sometimes they don't, but you won't know unless you cook them. Try a bite of the stems when they are tender. If they taste good but are fibrous, peel them with a sharp knife. If they are good, you have bonus bites of tasty artichoke. If they taste bitter, just add them to the compost pile. A teaspoon is the perfect tool to scrape off the fuzzy center after eating the tender parts of the leaves. Please remove the fuzzy choke with care. As my father used to say, "That's the part that choked Arty." Then you can eat the artichoke bottom. That is your reward for all the work you did to pull off, dip and nibble the leaves one at a time. I have cooked them this way for a long time and am not sure where the idea came from, but it was probably Julia Child. The sauce is from my DBF. His brother made it when they were boys at home. It's good on broccoli, too."

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 artichokes, washed and trimmed as above
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 10 peppercorns
• water, for steaming

• Sauce

• real mayonnaise
• yellow mustard

directions

1. Place one to two inches of water into a large pot with a tight-fitting lid and add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and whole peppercorns to the water.
2. Insert the steaming basket and place artichokes and trimmed stems inside the basket. If you don't have a steamer, it also works to place the artichokes directly into the water, bottoms down.
3. With lid off, heat until water boils, then put lid on and turn heat down to low to maintain a simmer.
4. Steam or simmer for 25-30 minutes or until a sharp knife can easily pierce bottoms of the artichokes near the stems. To be sure, test them all. Larger artichokes will take longer to cook. Remove hot artichokes from the pot with tongs.
5. To make the sauce: Mix about one part of yellow mustard into six parts of good mayonnaise. The sauce should be light yellow and not taste like either mayonnaise or mustard, but like a new sauce all its own. Add more of either ingredient as needed to get the "new" sauce.