Vegetables - Alan's Cookbook

Fried baby artichokes
It’s hard to believe that anything this delicious could actually be suitable
for vegans to eat, but there you have it.
Baby artichokes
Olive oil
Lemon
Sea salt
Baby artichokes are a seasonal treat in California,
especially near Castroville, the self-proclaimed
artichoke capitol of the world. Near the Pacific
coast with its 50 - 60 water, its climate is cool
and foggy most of the time; perfect for
artichokes. Babies are available on and off from
April through June.
Trim the tops off the babies. It helps to have
eaten mature artichokes to understand what I’m
saying here. What you’re trying to do is to get rid
of the part that you’d normally not scrape
anything off of with your teeth, or just eat
outright, and leave on the part that you would.
Artichokes are much more tender when young, so
you can imagine just chewing up and swallowing
on down the portion of the leaf you normally
scrape.
So also trim around the sides to get rid of the
little spiky bits. “Squaring the circle”, in other
words cutting it so it looks like a square viewed
from the top, instead of a circle, actually works
very well.
Fry the babies in hot olive oil. Sprinkle on a small
bit of sea salt, and squeeze lemon juice liberally
over them as they fry.
Serve at once.
Serves 1 per 3-6 chokes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
- 90 -