Yesterday, was a series of disasters as I attempted to can a food that I had never actually prepared in real life. Being completely unfamiliar with the artichoke was only part of the problem. First, artichokes have spikes everywhere. Ugh! Second, there are different types of artichokes so writing on your shopping list '6 lbs artichokes' is not sufficient. The recipe called for baby globe, and I bought globe. I am not sure how big of problem this ended up being and I suppose I will never know. Third, artichokes have tufts of hair in the middle of them! This was the biggest surprise of all. I cut this plant in half and a purple flower with hair comes out, it was quite an unexpected sight.
After cutting the artichoke in half, the recipe did not become much easier. The recipe said that I should pull back all the green leaves until I reached the yellow ones. Sounds easy, except my artichokes only had like 10 yellow leaves each (about 20% of the actual plant). So, I was all "that cant be right", and decided to add a bunch of the previous discarded green leaves in.? Now, I am wondering how those super tough green leaves are going to pickle the same as the dainty green ones. Also, what are you supposed to do with the fuzz that is in the inside? I took it out as I couldn't imagine eating it-but why would you not mention in a recipe that an artichoke has a massive, hairy pit and that you should take it out? Anyways, I followed the directions, made some more up, and then put the artichokes in the vinegar/oil mixture.
Yay. Easy. done. Except for the fact that the vinegar fumes gave me a MASSIVE migrane. I mean, it could have been coincidental that I chose to do canning project at the very same time that all drops of 'fireball whiskey' left my body and thus, I was just suffering a normal, alcohol induced headache. But, this one was BAD. I had to leave my canning station, dig around for advil, cry to Dustin, and then resume. Really the whole canning process, took longer than usual. So. with all these new experiences, I did manage to the get the artichokes canned in olive oil and lemon. I am still a little apprehensive about the end result, but I suppose we will see.
Sorry that I do not have pictures of my canned goods. It really doesn't look that interesting, trust me. I would have taken pictures but I was too busy being upset about my horrible headache. :(. Next project, more carrots! A vegetable I am COMPLETELY comfortable cutting and cooking.
Rachel
No comments:
Post a Comment