The Dawn of the Artichoke, among other great food

I've never eaten artichoke before. It's hard not to be turned off by a vegetable that apparently wants to choke Arty. I mean, what's to say it doesn't want to choke Cortne??? But after seeing them for $0.79 each at the fruit stand in my hometown, I decided to pick up a couple and begin experimenting.

I don't have a vegetable steamer, so, after cutting off part of the stem and trimming the top 1/2" of the artichoke, I dropped it into a pot of heavily salted and lemon juiced water, brought it to a boil, then let it simmer for 30-40 minutes, hoping that the leaves would come out as tender as other people say they should.

In the mean time, I roasted a chicken with some mushrooms, onions, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce and olive oil (peace of cake, only took 5 minutes of prep work and 35 minutes in the oven), braised some endives (another vegetable that I had before but never enjoyed due to the bitter taste, nothing a little, or a lot, of butter couldn't solve), and made a garlic aioli sauce.

When the artichokes were done bathing in the salty, lemony-water I plopped them onto a plate and placed them on the table with the other food. Mike looked sheepishly across the table at me as I picked off a leaf, dipped it in the aioli, flipped it over and slid the white, meaty part of the leaf across my teeth. "Wow," I thought to myself, "this is pretty good." And I tore off another leaf, just to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. I enjoyed it so much that, after prodding Mike about just tasting one leaf, I got him to try one, without the aioli (I got him to try the endive too, though it wasn't as big of a feat in my opinion). "It doesn't taste like anything," he said. I agree and don't agree with that. It tasted fresh, if fresh is allowed to be a taste. And so I lost my artichoke virginity that night, and it was delicious.

On another food note, for lunch yesterday I made a salad of spring greens and topped it with a fried egg. It was a great, healthful meal that can transcend the meal boundary (I see this as a breakfast, lunch or dinner). I also made one of the best vinaigrettes I've ever tasted. I've gotten really into food ratios, as can be seen in Michael Ruhlman's book, Ratio (there is also an app that I talked about in my last post). Apparently, the ratio for a vinaigrette is 3 parts oil : 1 part vinegar, as well as an emulsifier to keep the mixture combined and any other seasonings, to taste. My vinaigrette was 1 part olive oil : 2 parts vegetable oil : 1 part balsamic vinegar plus a teaspoon of whole grain Dijon mustard as an emulsifier and 1 drop of sesame oil for a deep, smoky flavor. It was soooo good I wanted to lick the plate. At any rate, this will lead the way for a post on vinaigrettes, once I cash my check and go buy some different oils and vinegars.

Enjoy.