Yeah, it's Artichoke Week over here.
As I mentioned in my last post we really love Marinated Artichoke Hearts. We got hooked on them a few years ago when store bought were well within our budget and we haven't really been willing to kick the habit since. Thus while our budget for such delicatessen counter delicacies has dwindled our love of them has not.
Some people may not agree with me but honestly in this household home made pizza just isn't the same without them. They are only second in my book to good olives when making this type of meal. As such it came down to two choices, find a low cost solution or only make pizza occasionally when we could afford the trimmings we like. Let's just say although we did it until I found this recipe the giving up pizza solution wasn't likely to work for us long term.
Now in our second year of artichoke cropping we are finally producing enough to actually preserve. I went out and seriously researched recipes. Funnily enough my searches found many recipes where Marinated Artichoke Hearts were an ingredient... very few to actually create them.
Of the few I found most of them were about doctoring tinned artichokes rather than processing fresh. While that is all well and good for times when my only option is tinned in this case it left me with very few recipes to play with.
Luckily for me the recipe I found first time round that is more than adequate. I am looking forward to eventually trying the recipe in it's original form. Currently though I don't have access to limes, where I do have access to copious lemons, so in the spirit of Eat The Food I have adjusted my published recipe accordingly.
The first time I put this together I replaced the lime juice with white wine vinegar. I found the strength of the vinegar seemed a little overwhelming. In the end I made the next two batches with lemon only and this seems to suit us quite well.
Marinated Artichoke Hearts
Ingredients
* 6 cleaned artichokes,with the tough outer leaves removed
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 4 strips lemon rind, cleaned of pith
* 1 cup salad oil (I use olive oil)
* 1 cup Lemon Juice
* 3 cloves garlic, crushed
Directions
Place artichoke hearts and salt in a saucepan containing about 3-4 cm of water, bring to a boil.
Cook artichokes until just tender.
Pack in preserving jars. Place a sliver of lemon in each jar.
Combine the oil, juices and garlic in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Pour oil mix immediately over the artichoke hearts and seal. Process for 20 min in a water bath.
5 comments:
Looks good - you've got me convinced that growing artichokes is now something I must do.
Well done. I grew artichokes a couple of years ago but I found them so hard to cope with most of them went to waste.
Maybe I will have another go and try your recipe.
Glad I was able to give both of you some inspiration.
Good Luck with your growing efforts.
Kind Regards
Belinda
Hi Belinda
I came across your post on preserving artichokes today as I was searching the internet for preserving recipes for them - we have a glut of them at the moment. I'm considering using my new vacola - have never used it before. Do you know what temp. I should put it at for processing as per your artichoke recipe (http://belindas-simple-life.blogspot.com/2009/10/eat-food-marinated-artichoke-hearts.html)
cheers
Marie Antoinette
http://www.landforveggies.blogspot.com
Welcome Marie,
I do these simply in a big stock pot so I am not sure what temperature it would be on the vacola system.
What you want is the water to be steadily boiling, but not rapid, for just over 20 min. I expect that would mean any temperature over 100C would be fine but you might need to do it by eye first time around until you get the feel of it.
Good Luck, there is nothing quite as exciting as an artichoke glut.
Kind Regards
Belinda
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