La Nouvelle Cuisine Thread

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Artichokes are fantastic.  Trader Joe's has a good artichoke stuffed ravioli.

My mom used to spend days slow cooking them in a pot with water, olive oil, and some butter melted into the top of each one.  Can't remember what spices she used, a few cloves of garlic and some others.  Man those were good, so good you didn't want to waste any, eating them took a while, using your teeth to scrape the good stuff off each leaf, when the leaves were done you were left with the heart and the spines.  Once you separated off the spines the heart was soooo good....

[Tripe]

Marinaded artichoke hearts are fantastic as the base layer in a meat and cheese sandwich.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Artichokes are fantastic.  Trader Joe's has a good artichoke stuffed ravioli.

My mom used to spend days slow cooking them in a pot with water, olive oil, and some butter melted into the top of each one.  Can't remember what spices she used, a few cloves of garlic and some others.  Man those were good, so good you didn't want to waste any, eating them took a while, using your teeth to scrape the good stuff off each leaf, when the leaves were done you were left with the heart and the spines.  Once you separated off the spines the heart was soooo good....

That's how my wife does it. I did it once with her and thought, "That was way too much fucking work for not very much reward."  So I don't bother with them. They're OK, not worth the time or money, and the pickled ones are nasty.

Does she take several days to cook them?  It takes that long for the "meat" inside to get good.  The heart should be soft as butter when fully cooked.  If not cooked long enough the texture and taste are not as good.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

No, she does it for a couple of hours.

It's just too much work to eat, honestly, and I don't think it's anything special. It tastes vaguely like asparagus, which also isn't really worth what it costs.

A couple hours is way too short, barely cooked, that's why the taste is wrong.  The way my mom did them they didn't taste anything like asparagus, not even close.  I can't think of anything to compare the taste to, it was unique.

Darn, now I'm a little depressed because it's pretty unlikely I'll ever taste that again.

[Tripe]

Did she leave any notes?

Failing that, it might be a good exercise to try and remember her cooking them in as much detail as you can; you might be able to hit upon the recipe that way.

[losingmydignity]

This has been one of my favorite sauces for years:

Take 1/4 cup each of butter (or margarine) and olive oil. Heat up in your skillet and toss in as much pressed garlic as you can handle. When garlic is golden toss in one can of quartered artichokes (or fresh cooked artis if you're that kind of person), fresh basil, and one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Gently heat. Put on some fresh black pepper. Serve on pasta, baked fish, etc. I never get tired of it.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I have wondered if a crock pot would get hot enough to make them, only way I would be able to attempt to replicate them would be with something like a crock pot. 

Anyone know if a crock pot on high gets water up close to boiling?

[Lembach]

I have wondered if a crock pot would get hot enough to make them, only way I would be able to attempt to replicate them would be with something like a crock pot. 

Anyone know if a crock pot on high gets water up close to boiling?

Wiki says the 79–93 °C (175–200 °F) range. I know my old nuclear 70s Crockpot get's hotter than that.
Googling the question got many returns that averaged 200 on low, 300 on high (F).

[Lembach]

This has been one of my favorite sauces for years:

Take 1/4 cup each of butter (or margarine) and olive oil. Heat up in your skillet and toss in as much pressed garlic as you can handle. When garlic is golden toss in one can of quartered artichokes (or fresh cooked artis if you're that kind of person), fresh basil, and one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Gently heat. Put on some fresh black pepper. Serve on pasta, baked fish, etc. I never get tired of it.

I am going to try this. These are canned artichokes in water and not marinated in oil, right?

[losingmydignity]

Right. And make sure you drain the artichokes before you put them in! I forgot to mention that. Also, make sure you heat it all on very low heat for about ten minutes once you put the artichokes and everything else in. No need to simmer obviously.

[Lembach]

[losingmydignity]

Another scary thing I like to eat. In fact, I've never met a vegetable I didn't like (well, eggplant isn't high on my list).

[Tripe]

I grilled some eggplant this summer and it wasn't too bad. Still kind of bitter

Did you salt it beforehand?

[Tripe]

No, you need to salt them for about half an hour before cooking, it extracts the bitter elements.

Now me, I like those flavour notes so I don't salt all that much but if you don't like them you need to salt them in a colander so the bitter compounds drip away. Probably a good idea to set them on paper towels for a bit after the salting too.

[Tripe]

Well you don't need heavy salting, just sprinkle the slices with salt.