Artichoke with garlic mayonnaise

GILL MELLER’S ARTICHOKE WITH GARLIC MAYONNAISE

The globe artichoke (unrelated to the Jerusalem variety) is one of the most striking edible plants. In July and August, it stands tall in the veg patch with silvery leaves, a strong stem, and a sculpted bud – that’s the part we eat. When buying, choose large, firm buds with tightly closed petals. If you’re new to cooking them, start with this simple method as the garlic mayonnaise goes so well with artichokes. In fact, it goes well with pretty much everything!

Preparation time 10 minutes | Cook time 10–30 minutes | Serves 1

INGREDIENTS

A good squeeze of lemon juice

1–2 artichokes per person

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the mayonnaise:

2 firm fresh garlic cloves, very finely grated

2 Stonegate Estate Organic egg yolks

2 tsp Dijon mustard, heaped

Juice of half an organic lemon

125ml sunflower oil

100ml extra-virgin olive oil

METHOD

  1. Make the mayonnaise by placing the garlic, egg yolk, mustard and lemon juice in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper and whiz for 30 seconds. Combine the oils in a jug. With the processor running, slowly add them to the mixture, a few drops at a time at first, then in a trickle. Once you’ve added all the oil, you should have a thick, glossy mayo that holds its shape. Taste and adjust the seasoning if required. You can do this in a bowl with a whisk if you prefer.
  1. Bring a very large pan of salted water to the boil, add a good squeeze of lemon juice (which helps to keep the artichokes’ colour), then add the artichokes. Cook until the base is tender to the point of a knife and the leaves pull away easily. This may take as little as 8–10 minutes for very freshly picked, young artichokes, or considerably longer for older, larger ones – up to 20–30 minutes or so.
  1. When the artichokes are cooked, remove them from the pan with tongs and stand them upside down so the water drains away from the hearts.
  1. To eat, pull the leaves away from the artichokes, dip them in the mayonnaise and eat just like that. When you get to the tender inner leaves with the purple tips, you can remove them all at once – just eat the light-coloured parts of these leaves.
  1. Use a knife or spoon to scrape out and remove the inedible fuzzy choke covering the artichoke heart. Cut the heart into pieces and dip that into mayonnaise and eat.
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