Artichokes are my favorite vegetable. My favorite way to eat them is the way I have my whole life: cooked whole, each leaf dipped in a sharp lemony sauce until you get to the heart, whose choke you free with a butter knife then schmear with the sauce like you’re thickly buttering a piece of bread, and eat it while holding the stem like a lollipop, your eyes closed as you absorb the heady bliss of it all. Clearly, it means a lot to me but I’m not sharing a recipe with three words: Just boil them. A few years ago I started steaming artichokes instead of boiling them and found I preferred it — less wet, and seemingly more evenly cooked. But it still didn’t warrant mention here, though, too simple.
A few weeks ago one of my favorite chefs on TikTok, Hailee Catalano, who you’d be mad to not be following, made artichokes and she did two things differently that have changed the course of my artichoke-steaming life forever, something I didn’t even know was possible. The first is that she halved the artichokes before steaming them. I’ve seen this in roasted artichoke recipes, but never steamed. But it’s brilliant here too: They soften more quickly this way (30 minutes, tops) and it’s a lot neater to eat from the plate, not rolling around.
The next a-ha thing Hailee did was wait to remove the fuzzy choke, the part you don’t want to eat. Most recipes that begin with halved artichokes suggest you remove the choke before cooking them, as opening it up has given you easy access, but I’m telling you: Don’t. You’re removing it when it’s the most pesky, and you’re the least likely to get it out clean. If you wait until after it’s cooked, it comes out so cleanly and easily, you’ll be glad you did.
The final thing Hailee did was she finished the cooked artichokes by searing them in a skillet with garlic butter, a lot of it, and basting it over. As a purist, I didn’t find that this increased my own personal artichoke-eating enjoyment (but it also certainly didn’t decrease, see: garlic butter). But as a person who likes my food to be pretty for you and other friends, I absolutely love this presentation and couldn’t resist.
