Grilled Artichokes

"Dearest Bestie - could you do a blog on how to make grilled artichokes?"

I got that text last week from Mary and I'm so happy to make these for her - I sorta forgot how much we LOVE grilled artichokes and this was a perfect reason to remind myself how to do them. And I have to say...they turned out GREAT and we scarfed them for dinner last night.

I pulled up a recipe online to make sure I knew how to do it - and I do, other than the online recipe has brushed herbed olive oil all over the halved artichokes after steaming and before grilling. I tried that and it's a delicious addition of extra flavor (not to mention it helped them not stick to the grill, D liked that part). To make the oil put a tablespoon or so of chopped fresh herbs (I used rosemary and thyme from my pallet herb garden) in a small glass bowl, top with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and microwave for 30 seconds until warm. Set aside letting it steep while preparing the 'chokes.

1. cut off about an inch from the top, then using kitchen scissors snip all the little pokey points off the leaves. peel off any little "bad" leaves around the bottom, peel the old stuff off the stalk and trim it to a couple inches.
2. cut the artichoke in half; using a strong spoon scoop out the fuzzy choke and small inner leaves from the center. you do not want to eat the fuzzy part for sure! you can rub the cut edges with a lemon wedge to help them not turn brown, but I didn't have a lemon so can't show you that part, they turned out fine without it...
3. put about an inch or so of salted water in the bottom of a large pan fitted with a vegetable steamer, bring to a boil. place the artichokes cut side down on the steamer, cover, turn heat down to a simmer. 
4. steam for about 20 minutes until you can pull off an outer leave pretty easily and the choke is getting soft when poked with a fork.
5. brush all over with the herbed olive oil, sprinkle with coarse kosher salt.
6. put on a hot grill for 5-10 minutes until they have pretty grill marks and are cooked completely thru.
7. eat to your hearts content! yum - these are so good! 

In case you've never eaten an artichoke and are a little intimidated - pull off the outer leaves, turn over and scrape the "meat" off the leaf with your teeth, then discard the leaf. Once all leaves are pulled off you will be left with the heart of the artichoke - it's sort of like a solid meaty chunk, cut that into pieces and savor :). You can dip the artichoke leaves and heart into mayo or melted butter if you want to sauce them - I made a quick sauce of mayo, lemon juice, pepper, and a teaspoon of the herbed olive oil. 

after cutting in half remove the fuzzy inner choke and small leaves. for comparison - left is cleaned, right is not

one half cleaned (see all the fuzzy part pulled out), and what the cleaned other half looks like on  the outside

steam cut-side down on a steamer basket in a little water