Artichoke Vinaigrette

This makes a great ice-breaking starter to a meal, served cold with a classic vinaigrette.

They have to be eaten with the fingers and a communal effect is achieved by having a central bowl for the discarded leaves to be thrown in.

More about that later. First, let’s deal with preparing and cooking them.

Artichokes are a kind of giant thistle. Realizing that will give you a very good clue as to how to deal with them.

The first thing to do is to take off the bottom layer only of tough outer leaves. There's usually no more than 5 of them.

Next snap off (not cut) the stalk which is easily done by holding the head at the edge of a table or other work surface and snapping downwards on the stalk.

So far so good. Now for the tricky bit.

Easing back the top leaves you will see a sort of fine cone of immature leaves. Grasp these firmly in one piece, twist and remove them. Below this is the ‘choke’ which is inedible to say the least.

Scrape this out with a teaspoon.

Now cook the globes either in boiling water with a little lemon juice or, as I do, by steaming them. They are cooked when an outer leaf pulls away easily.

WARNING: iron and aluminum pans will discolor them – don’t use.

Leave them to drain and cool upside down.

To serve, you need a small bowl of vinaigrette per person, into which they dip the soft end of the leaves before scraping off the soft edible part with their teeth. See what I mean about ice-breaking?

The final part, the heart of the artichoke, is best eaten with a knife and fork – but feel free! Fingers got there first. Just be sure to have a finger bowl for each diner.

There’s a good alternative to bowls of vinaigrette by the way. Serve the artichokes while still warm and pour a little hollandaise sauce in the top of each one. Delicious.