Roasted Artichokes Recipe

How to make it

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• Cleaning the Edible Thistle takes the longest… I do this while watching regrettable TV like Max X or AFV. Fun to do with help.
• Cleaning: Squeeze one lemon into a bowl of water and one into a pot for blanching.
• Cleaning: Grab yer chokes. Rip off the bottommost leaves, then bend successive leaves backwards upon themselves until they snap, and tug backwards until they separate, thereby pulling all of the fiber off while leaving the tasty inner fleshy bits. Keep snapping leaves until you get to the tender 'inner leaves': the 'inner leaves'' tips are all even at the ends. Then rinse em and slap em on a chopping board. Nick off the end of the stem and 1/5 - 1/4 of the top to clear the spiny leaf-ends, and whack them in half longways.
• Cleaning: Grab a big ol' tablespoon and dig into the actual choke -- just above the curved heart -- and let the curve of the spoon carry the digging force so the choke pops right out, along with the spiky inner leaves. Plop them in water mixed with lemonjuice so they don't go all icky black.
• Cooking: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Blanch them in water with juice of a lemon for 5 minutes. Lightly slick a baking sheet with a thin film of olive oil. Slop the cleaned & blanched artichoke halves onto the sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, slop with more oil if you choose. Into the oven they go! Right under the broiler for maximum caramelization, nummies!
• Cooking: Flip them every 15 - 20 minutes, 30 or 40 minutes tops. We're looking for soft smooth texture with delicious brown crunchy bits. The more you flip, the more leaves will fall off and become Choke Chips on the bottom of the pan for 'tasting'…don't flip too often, there'll be nothing left for dinner! These are delectable hot or cold.
• NOTE: this method (minus the blanching) is fantastic with all hard vegetables, including but not limited to artichokes, cauliflower (all kinds, and having the 4 different colors on a platter is stunning), brussels sprouts, root veggies, etc. All of the above are perfect to accompany roasts.