Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello all!

I've just cut about 15 good sized artichoke heads, and I'd like to bottle the hearts/leaves italian antipasto style. Does anyone know how to do this please? I've done a brief google serach but come up with zip really.
in anticipation, retropants

There's a recipe in this month's Good Food magazine but it's for short term storage, although you could probably adjust it to make it more of a long term preserve.

Do you want me to PM it to you?

OOh yes please, that would be wonderful! I'll let you know how they turn out!

thankyou

retropants wrote:I've just cut about 15 good sized artichoke heads, and I'd like to bottle the hearts/leaves italian antipasto style.

Hi Retro, I'm quite jealous of you as I cut down all my artichokes at the end of last year, now miss them!

I found quite a useful approach was to roast them in the oven (if you can bear the heat at the moment!). Quite a lot of the outside leaves will drop off and you can then slice the choke off quite easily to leave the base.

Though I haven't tried this, I reckon you could get the end result you're after by just bottling them with vinaigrette. Don't know what the longevity of this would be (but in our household, barely a month...).

Let us know how you get on.

...to Tigger, got the recipe, will give it a go.

...to Garlic Guy, sorry, didn't mean to make anyone envious. They grow every year, and I have never managed to do anything with them. This year's harvest will have been the best by far I think, there have only ever benn 4 or five worth picking in the past.

wish me luck!!

thanks again.

Hi retropants, I was looking for exactly the same recipe and found these to try next year:
http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/vege ... served.htm
http://italianfood.about.com/od/veggiea ... lr1362.htm

Many thanks, for all the ideas.
This is what I have done, I basically meshed all the recipies to come up with this:

prepare hearts by removing outer leaves, trimming top of bud, removing choke and halving. After every stage I doused with lemon juice to avoid browning, which happens almost immediately!
Then I cooked in lemony water for about 5 mins (for smallish hearts) until just tender.
After draining, I cut them into quarters, packed into sterilised jars and filled with white vinegar, making sure no air remains.
They were left overnight, drained in the morning and refilled with fresh white vinegar.
At the end of the day (when I get in from work) the jars are drained once again, then I added 2 cloves of garlic, a torn bay leaf and some basil to each jar, then filled with mild olive oil.
The jars were then processed in boiling water for 30 minutes.
The look just right, and my tasters will let me know in due course if they are ok, great or fab (or nasty!) I am not keen on them myself, but am very happy to make pickles and preserves for my friends and family!
Phew.

Can't wait to hear how they turned out - let us know!

I've not preserved artichokes myself, but I would say remove the garlic from the bottles/jars. Garlic preserved in oil has been implicated in cases of botulism - this from lots of reading I've done. Just my thoughts.

The bottles were processed in boiling water for 30 mins, so should be sterilised?

I'll let you know how they've turned out when the lucky people I donated them too have scoffed them! Probably in the next week or so, they are quite literally champing at the bit!!!

Hurrah!
Apparently they are great, but they do give you , ahem, wind! I haven't eaten them, but the people I gave them to have reported very positivley back to me! A few refinements for next year, but all together a success!!
Thankyou everyone for your recipes!

Thanks retro, will keep your recipe for hoped-for gluts - I've just got 24 seedlings in!