My obsession lately, as it has always been, is steak! However, as I grow up I am becoming more and more aware of the nutrition of my favorite foods, and unfortunately, steak is not always a good choice! Because of this my focus has recently shifted to those sides that no one ever seems to have room for after finishing the main course. Elway's, a local restaurant where John Elway began the football-high quality steakhouse trend, has been one of my favorite weekend dinner places for a couple years now. But my most recent enthusiasm for this destination has sparked from having a lighter lunch there. I know it might sound crazy, and a few months ago if someone had suggested this to me I would have thought it was weird, but having artichoke, fries, and a key lime tart at 2:00 in the afternoon has become a favorite thing of mine to do. And because, unfortunately, I can’t eat at Elway’s everyday, I worked to master their AMAZING artichoke recipe! Here it is:
1. Prep the artichokes. This means cutting down the stem if it is longer than necessary. Also, at Elway’s they don’t cut off the spines that you will find at the end of each leaf. Depending on just how pointy they are I don’t always because it can be easier to hold onto the leaf with them still there.
2. Steam the artichokes. I find that it is easiest to do this for one or two artichokes in the microwave, but any other method will probably work just fine. Basically, you take the prepped artichokes, put them in a microwavable bowl, fill it with a small amount of water, put plastic wrap over the top, and microwave for anywhere from 4-8 minutes depending on the amount of artichoke in your bowl.
3. WARNING! CAUTION! EXTREMELY HOT FOOD! Now you have to prepare yourself to get the artichokes out of the microwave. THEY WILL BE EXTREMELY HOT! Put oven gloves on, do whatever you have to do, because if you grab that bowl with out preparation you will burn yourself.
4. Now, Check. To make sure that you have fully cooked the artichokes, first make sure they are hot. If you microwaved them for a minute and the water is still barely warm, they aren't finished. Repeat step two. If they are hot and you can smell something kind of like you imagine artichoke tea would smell like, continue. Stick a fork, knife, or even spoon into the very bottom of the artichoke. I prefer not to use a knife because if they are sharp enough they won't tell you whether the artichoke is cooked well enough at all, it could be sliding through a completely raw artichoke, and we don't want that now do we? If the utensil of your choosing sleds easily into the artichoke, continue.
5. Now comes the hard part. This step can vary depending on the size, shape, and ripeness of your vegetable, but this is the basic process. Take a kitchen knife and cut your artichoke in half. This doesn't have to be perfect, but you want the halves to be as even as possible for the sake of the next step. Now, take a paring knife, the smallest one you have, and make a fairly deep cut into the artichoke below the green hairy stuff in the middle. This is the choke. This is the part that you will need to interpret based upon your artichoke. Really, you just want to cut out all of the hair. I like to take out the smaller leaves that you will see once the hair is gone, just because there isn't much meat on them anyway.
6. Seasoning. The seasoning that I used is the Elway's Steak Seasoning. My grandmother bought this for me simply so that I could recreate this dish, and I'm so glad she did! There really is nothing else, that I have seen, quite like this blend. I could go on and on about the ingredients, but basically, if you live in Denver you need to buy this and if you live elsewhere.....well, I suppose that salt pepper, garlic salt, and your other favorite spices will do. What you're going to do is brush olive oil all over the front, back, and insides of the artichoke and put on top of that as much seasoning as you would like.
7. Finishing touches. The rest is really simple. Turn on your oven to broil. That is when your oven has a fire coming out of the top of it. If you'd like this is also the time to grill your artichokes. If you're using your oven, first preheat and decide how well you want to cook them. I like my really charred but that's personal preference. then put your artichokes in for about 3-5 minutes on each side, but it's a good idea to keep an eye on them so they don't burn.
8. Enjoy!
Side note: There are lots of different toppings for lemon juice. Some that I have found work well with this recipe are yes, melted butter, lemon juice(b/c I'm obsessed with lemon), or an aioli the recipe for which I will be posting tomorrow! Look out for that! Bye!
