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Recipes for Health: Artichokes
Among the items that at some point in history were deemed edible by our ancestors, artichokes have a great deal in common with lobsters: it's hard to imagine how anyone saw their potential.
It's not a small point that artichokes make everything else taste better. This is not just a myth: Artichokes contain a compound called cynarin, which stimulates taste bud receptors and makes even mediocre food delicious.
Years ago, artichokes were a springtime treat. Even though they're now available year-round, their odd growing requirements still mean they're best in spring. They like a long, cool season of a kind found only in places with mild but moist winters, which means the Mediterranean, California or the like. In northern Italy and southern France, the kinds of artichokes grown vary by region, and different colors, sizes and shapes are available.
Here we usually just have a choice of the large bulbous globe type or small ones. Large artichokes are best for eating straight, or stuffed. Buy ones with tight leaves  they spread as they age  and with no brown spots or signs of abuse. You can cut off the tip of the stem and trim its sides with a paring knife, but preserve as much of the rest as you can. If you are stuffing the artichoke, it must have a flat bottom, so you need to cut the stem off. You can also cut the pointed tips off, but that isn't necessary.
You can remove the hardest outer leaves as you like. Before cooking you can remove the choke  the hairy tuft in the center, right above the heart, which will stick rather unpleasantly in your throat  or you can remove it at the table.
Steaming whole artichokes is better than boiling because they don't become as waterlogged. Just make sure not to let the pot boil dry during the long cooking time, usually 30 to 45 minutes.
Baby artichokes are both more versatile and a little more complicated. First of all, there are small artichokes and baby artichokes, and it is very hard to tell the difference by sight. True baby artichokes have no choke at all and are entirely edible. Small artichokes may have a choke; just dig it out with a spoon after cutting the artichoke in half.
This will take only 10 seconds or so, but beware that when you're cooking 10 or 20 artichokes this is a bit of a chore. (To prevent the artichokes from dulling in color, keep them in a bowl of acidulated water  about 10 percent vinegar or lemon juice  between trimming and cooking.)  Excerpted and adapted from “Beneath a Prickly Exterior, a Welcome Taste of Spring,†by Mark Bittman.