Artichoke

How amazing is it that I actually followed through with one of my goals? Artichokes!
Seeing that the only forms of artichoke I have ever eaten is smothered in
cheese or in pasta, I figured to really get to know the vegetable,
I needed it in a very simplified form. Broiled.

The preparation and cooking are just as simple as the flavor...

Ingredients:

1 Artichoke

1/2 of a lemon

2 garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon of Olive oil

Salt + Pepper

(Preheat the oven to 425)

All you need to do to prepare the artichoke is cut off the stem, and the top inch or so of the leaves...

they aren't edible. Once you have that done, you can start spreading the leaves apart 

so that all of the flavors of the juices you add later can drip down into the crevices...

Before you start adding the seasonings, put the artichoke on a piece of tin foil 

with a tiny bit of olive oil to make sure it doesn't stick at all.

Squeeze your lemon over the artichoke, making sure it is evenly distributed

Next, drizzle your olive oil over the entire artichoke, adding more depending on your personal taste.

Now, shove the two garlic cloves into the leaves...

and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Wrap your artichoke up in the tinfoil making sure nothing is exposed!

And pop it in the oven.

Now comes the hard part... waiting. 1 1/2 hours. For an artichoke.

(My artichoke was fairly large, so for a medium I would only do 1 hour and 15 minutes or so...)

The finished product...

How to eat: Pull the leaves out one by one and scrape the meatiness off of the bottom with your teeth.

It may take some trial and error to figure out what is and is not edible.

Or you could always dive in face first and see how it goes.

** You may want some sauce to dip it in... what kind, is up to you. Be creative! && Enjoy :)