Artichokes begin with A

"The artichoke, like the oyster, is a food that makes an indelible impression on the untried tongue." Bert Greene

And because they begin with the letter A they are often the subject of a first recipe in a cookbook arranged by ingredient. As today. For I'm still trying to reduce the number of books sitting on my desk and this particular cookbook and its first recipe - the first of several lined up on this particular shelf - from Beverley Sutherland Smith, is one of her later books - and one of my very, very favourite cookbooks - The Seasonal Kitchen.

Beverley Sutherland Smith, is to my mind an unrecognised star of the Australian cooking scene - not as haute cuisine as Stephanie can sometimes be but easily on a par with Maggie Beer. I have made countless things from this particular book and never failed with any of them.

She wrote it at a time when she was very much into vegetable gardening. I think her garden was part of the Open Gardens scheme for a while, so it's interesting that she begins with globe artichokes, because as she says in her introduction 'I don't grow globe artichokes', although she doesn't really explain why because she confesses to adoring them, and also to the fact that 'they must be eaten quickly after picking.'

Although this is a large and glossy book, with beautiful photographs of each vegetable, like the one at the top of the page, there are very, very few photographs of the dishes described within. Which really doesn't matter, although it may well put off modern consumers of cookbooks, who have become used to pictures showing them what their finished dish is supposed to look like. Which is a tempting, but also potentially demoralising thing.

She presents us with two full recipes; one brief but basic one; a list - like Stephanie - of the things that go with artichokes; and also a couple of hints - and you needs lots of hints with respect to how to deal with artichokes. The first of these is one that I have not seen anywhere else:

"Water will collect in artichokes if they are boiled, so drain well and then squeeze gently with some kitchen paper towel in your hand to get rid of the excess. Aluminium causes globe artichokes to discolour, so, cook in stainless steel or enamel."

Her basic recipe is to braise them. This picture is from a Gourmet Traveller recipe for braised artichokes. There are very few pictures of any of her recipes online. I guess today's young cooks are most probably unaware of her, and so there are not a lot of people out there having a go at her recipes and showing the results online. Also since her books do not have many photographs in them, there are no 'official' photos either. So this is the closest that I could get to hers:

"Trim very well cutting into quarters or even six sections and then put into a frying pan with 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of olive oil, plenty of pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic, left in their skin. Cook over a medium heat, turning them over, until they are almost tender. They take approximately 15 minutes. Put a lid on top and let them sit for about 5 minutes, squeeze some lemon over the top, add a little finely chopped parsley and some Parmesan cheese, once they are on the plate."

The Gourmet Traveller recipe uses verjuice, olive oil - lots, lemon rind and plenty of garlic. Beverley, as you see, ignores the lemon rind, and substitutes water for the verjuice. She also cuts her artichokes into smaller pieces than those shown above. Now to be fair to Gourmet Traveller, verjuice and lemon peel would, I think, be a desirable addition, and it seems that the Italians - well the Romans in particular, who are into braising artichokes, also use white wine.

Her actual first recipe is Globe artichokes with a tomato dressing, and again I cannot find a perfectly matching photograph. This picture shows Tomato braised artichokes with pistachio pesto, from a website called Ocean Mist Farms but again it's really not the same thing, as the tomatoes are cooked with the artichoke and there is the pistachio pesto as well.

In Beverley's recipe you simply braise the artichokes, having cut them into four or six sections, and then when you are ready to serve, you provide a vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice plus garlic, brown sugar and 3 small finely chopped tomatoes - the dressing having been allowed to sit for a few hours so that the flavours meld together.

Her other artichoke recipe is Artichoke with garlic and lemon crumb topping. And I have to say that her remarks about aluminium - also found elsewhere I have to say - rather confuse me because in this version - Roasted artichoke with lemon garlic breadcrumbs from Alaska from Scratch - the artichokes are baked wrapped in aluminium foil.

Beverley braises her artichokes first, bakes them on top of some chopped softened onion for about 20 minutes before scattering with the fried lemony, garlic breadcrumbs, whilst my found recipe baked the artichokes with the lemony, garlic breadcrumbs pressed down in between the leaves before wrapping in that foil for baking.

Beverley ran a cooking school for many years. The wife of my husband's first Australian boss attended one of her courses here in Melbourne I believe and raved about them. She wrote several wonderful cookbooks - just coming up in my first recipe occasional series - and also wrote columns in The Age newspaper. And yet, she seems not to be held in the same high regard as Australian cooking icons such as Margaret Fulton, Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer. Why not one wonders. Is it the people you know perhaps?

And with respect to artichokes - Bert Greene in his Greene on Greens cookbook and the introduction to his chapter on artichokes tells an amusing story involving his first taste of artichoke, to illustrate the fact that artichokes, like coriander and anchovies are a love/hate kind of thing. And Nigel doesn't have artichokes in his gardening/cooking book Tender volume 1. Is he not a fan either? I found a couple of Nigel recipes, but interestingly they featured preserved artichokes bought in jars from your supermarket. Now what does that say?

YEARS GONE BY

July 13

2024 - That Choice survey

2023 - Anchovies and breadcrumbs

2022 - The challenge of a French vegetarian meal

2021 - Use it all the Cornersmith way

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Today's challenge - clean cuisine

2017 - Nothing