Confit Artichokes

One of the main reasons that I wanted to come to Barcelona was because of the artichokes. No shit. Forget the food, culture, architecture, beach and the super friendly abuelos who love to knead my daughter's cheeks. The best thing about Barcelona is easily the artichokes. Man they are frickin' everywhere, and cheap! So cheap in fact that you start to lose respect for them after a while. My local market charges one European euro per kilo! That's right, ONE Euro-pean euro. There aren't many things left in this world that you can buy for that sort of money, but in this fine town, artichokes are one of them. 


I was not going to bother putting up this recipe for preserved artichokes as I can't imagine anyone will ever make them, but if anyone does, they will be rewarded with great tongue riches. And that reward will be the reward that continues to reward for weeks. Seriously, these babies are so good, that I guarantee that they will be the best artichokes you've ever had. 

Recipe


4 kilos of baby artichokes
the zest (in strips, white pith removed) and juice of 2 lemons 
1 lemon cut in half and squeezed into a bowl of enough cold water to cover chokes
10 to 20 cloves of garlic (to your preference really) peeled and trimmed 
1 tbsp of fennel seeds (or 1/2 tsp of fennel pollen if you can find it)
sea salt to taste (I used about 2 tsp) 
5 tbsp of good quality red wine vinegar 
5 bay leaves
2 litres of sunflower oil (or really mild olive oil if you want)

                                        
Trim artichokes with the help of this wonderful instructional video, making sure you rub a cut lemon over any yellow bits to stop them from oxidising. You're going to need both the lemons for all of these. And please don't cut off the stalk as per the video, just use a peeler to remove the tough outer layer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlXkci9ZiAM

If you paid attention to the short film, your trimmed artichoke should look like this.

There is no need to remove the hairy choke when they are this small as it is edible when cooked. But if you prefer the waxed look, go right ahead. Place into the acidulated water and then repeat over and over again until all the chokes are bobbing away. It's going to take a while, but if you've come this far, you obviously have nothing better to do anyway.


Drain and pat dry the artichokes and very quickly (to avoid oxidisation) place them into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Sprinkle them with the salt and fennel seeds, toss to coat. Pour in the oil to just cover and then add the remaining ingredients; bay leaves, lemon zest, garlic cloves and vinegar. Stir everything through and put on the hob over a low heat. 

 Cover with some baking paper and put a smaller saucepan lid over to weigh them down. You don't want anything poking above the oil. Now here's the important part. You want these to confit slowly, not to fry, so make sure the flame is low so the oil is burping bubbles rather than simmering.  


Cook for anywhere up until an hour or when a knife slides easily into the flesh. The stalks are usually a good indication of when they are done. Be careful not to overcook because they'll fall apart. But they will still be awesome. 

Allow the oil to cool and then squidge them all into sterilised jars like tiny fat babies.  Cover with the oil and make sure you distribute the garlic cloves evenly because they are great to smear onto toast. 

And here is the finished product. Impressive huh? And as you churn through these, you can use the extra oil to make a killer dressing. To do this, either just add a few more tbsp of vinegar or some more lemon juice to some reserved oil and season. 


Or blitz a couple of artichokes (and some of the garlic cloves) in a food processor, add a little red wine vinegar to taste, and while the engine is running, slowly drizzle a couple of cups of the oil until you've got a creamy smooth dressing.  You can go even further and make mayo using the steps above, but adding a couple of egg yolks at the start. We used to serve this at The Easton with chargrilled lamb cutlets or fish.