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Artichokes

Grilled Artichokes with Crab Filling

Grilled Artichokes with Crab Filling2

My grill broke last summer. We were in the middle of a move, and I still held onto the hope that we could fix it, so it wasn’t replaced. In Southern California, grillin' isn’t just a summer activity, it’s a year long love affair, making an entire 13 months sans grill a really long time to deprive myself of the chard glory of fire cooked food.

We just replaced it this past weekend and I can’t get enough of it. I had been trying to satisfy my urge to grill via my grill pan. Although it is a pretty fantastic pan, after making this corn on my stove top in a grill pan I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to have the real thing. I think I’ve officially reached Grill Junky status, lets hope I can keep it under control.

Hope you don’t mind too much, but I’ll be posting my grilling adventures over the next few weeks. And probably well into fall.

Grilled Artichokes with Crab Filling

My favorite pinterest board right now is my Grillin' like a Villain. Feel free to post links to grilled food I should be aware of!

Grilled Artichokes with Crab Filling

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 28 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

For the Artichokes:

  • 2 fresh artichoke
  • 4 tbs melted butter
  • 2 tbs lemon juice
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • Vegetable oil for the grill

For the Filling:

  • 4 rings fresh pineapples (cut off rind and remove core)
  • 12 ounces fresh lump crab meat
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ½ tsp mustard powder
  • ¼ tsp hot pepper sauce
  • 8 large Brussels sprouts
  • 2 ounce crumbled goat cheese

Instructions

  1. Prepare a pot of lightly salted boiling water. Preheat the grill
  2. Slice the artichokes down the center, lengthwise. Using a melon baller and a paring knife remove the hair from the choke as well as the inner purple leaves, leaving a cavity in the center of the each artichoke half.
  3. Boil in the pot of lightly salted boiling water until the outer leaves tear away easily, about 20 minutes.
  4. Grill the pineapple rings until strong grill marks appear on each side, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from grill, allow to cool slightly, chop.
  5. In a small bowl stir together the crab meat, pineapple, sour cream, hot pepper sauce, ½ tsp each of salt, pepper, chili powder, and mustard powder.
  6. Using a cheese crater, grate the Brussels sprouts, this should equal about 2/3 cup. Stir the grated Brussels sprouts into the crab mixture.
  7. Once the artichokes are done cooking, remove from water and allow to drain.
  8. Mix the melted butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Brush artichokes on all sides with melted butter mixture.
  9. Brush the grill with vegetable oil. Grill artichokes, cut side down, until nice grill marks appear, about 5-8 minutes. Baste artichokes with melted butter while grilling.
  10. Remove from grill, fill the cavity of each artichoke with crab mixture and top with crumbled goat cheese. Return to the grill, crab side up, and cook just until the filling is warm and the cheese has started to melt, about 3 minutes.
  11. Serve immediately.

Notes

Starting at the outside and working inward, use the artichoke leaves to scoop out and eat the filling.

Grilled Artichokes with Crab Filling3

Salt Roasted Whole Fish with Grilled Artichokes

Salt Roasted Whole Fish with Grilled Artichokes

It’s been a strange few weeks for me, cooking wise. I’ve been getting back to the food I love, remembering why I ever picked up a whisk in the first place, challenging myself as a cook and remembering the food I fell in love with. If you follow my other blog, you are aware of this shift I’ve taken.

I’m happy, and relived in a way, chasing the Traffic Dragon is exhausting and cooking what I love makes me happy, and for the first time in a while I’m excited to share a dish.

Salt Roasted Whole Fish9

The first time I ever had a salt packed roasted anything was while traveling through Italy as a broke college student. I’d worked three jobs and saved for six months to send myself over seas and had ended up in the small city of Trieste. I’d wandered into a restaurant that was far too fancy for my tiny budget. I saw pesci listed on the menu and just pointed to it. There weren’t any prices on the menu and I just hoped that the fish I order wasn’t too expensive.

Grilled Artichokes5

What came to my table was a salt packed whole fish on a cart. I panicked for a second and then decided to order a glass of wine and enjoy it. It ended up costing $60, a small travelers fortune, but it was worth it. I lived off bread and cheese for a week, but I’ll never forget that fish.

Lately I’ve been trying to remember food I’ve fallen in love with and that fish came to mind. It’s a classic, old world, technique that isn’t used much in the US, but it’s brilliant at locking in flavor with zero added cooking fat.

Salt Roasted Whole Fish4

I found a video online by Tom Colicchio about salt roasted fish, just like the one I had in Italy. It paired well with the artichokes, and grilling is my absolute favorite way to make artichokes now, something you need to try this summer if you get a chance.

The fish is simple. Just start with a whole fish that’s been gutted. Most markets sell these cheaper than large fillets because there is less labor involved.

Mix the salt and the egg white, make a bed of salt on an oven safe serving platter (or rimmed baking sheet)

Salt Roasted Whole Fish

 

Put lemon and herbs in the cavity, then pack the remaining salt around the fish before roasting.

Salt Roasted Whole Fish2

 

It comes out of the oven a light golden brown and steamed to perfection. Very impressive, and pretty easy.

Salt Roasted Whole Fish 11

 

For the artichokes, just cut them in half down the center

Grilled Artichokes

 

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Use a melon baller and a sharp paring knife to remove the hair and the purple leaves, then boil for 25 minutes,

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baste with melted butter and grill until you get those beautiful grill marks.

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Salt Roasted Whole Fish

Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 lb whole fish, gutted and cleaned (sturdy fatty fish like: salmon, arctic char, whitefish, sablefish, bass)
  • 3 thin slices of lemon
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 4 egg whites
  • 2 cups coarse Kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Pre heat oven to 400.
  2. Whip the egg whites with a fork for about 1 minute. Add the salt, mix until it resembles wet sand.
  3. Lay about ¾ cup of salt mixture on an oven safe serving platter (you can also use a baking sheet with sides) add the fish to the top of the salt bed. Stuff the cavity of the fish with lemon slices and rosemary.
  4. Add the remaining salt to the top of the fish. Pack the salt around the fish (it’s fine if the head and tail are sticking out).
  5. Roast at 400 for 25-30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 125F and the salt pack is light brown.
  6. Remove from oven, the salt pack should break away cleanly.

Grilled artichokes

Ingredients

  • 2 large globe artichokes
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 4 tbs unsalted butter, melted
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • vegetable oil for grill
  • Dipping sauce, if desired

Instructions

  1. Prepare a pot of lightly salted boiling water.
  2. Slice the artichokes down the center, lengthwise. Using a melon baller and a paring knife remove the hair from the choke as well as the inner purple leaves, leaving a cavity in the center of the each artichoke half.
  3. Boil in the pot of lightly salted boiling water until the outer leaves tear away easily, about 20 minutes.
    Mix the lemon juice, melted butter, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
  4. Brush a preheated grill (or a grill pan) with vegetable oil. Brush artichokes lemon butter mixture, grill cut side down, until nice grill marks appear, about 8 minutes. Baste artichokes with melted butter while grilling.
  5. Serve warm with dipping sauce, if desired (pesto butter, garlic aioli, herbed mayonnaise, lemon butter).

Salt Roasted Whole Fish5

Beer Steamed Stuffed Artichokes & How to Stuff an Artichoke

 

Here’s my artichoke. We’re going to gut him and stuff him with bacon.

And then cook him in beer.

 

 

The first step is to trim. Start with peeling off a few layers of the outside leaves They’re tough and not very good, don’t feel bad about getting rid of them.

And if your artichoke has a long stem, trim it so that it can stand upright, with its leaves pointed at the sky. That will come in handy later.

Then you are going to cut off the pointed tip of the artichoke.

 

Then use a pair a kitchen sheers, (or, lets be honest regular scissors will be fine) to trim the pointed tips off of all of the leaves.

 

Starting at the outside and working towards the inside, pull the leaves outward.

 

Once you get to the inside leaves that are yellow and purple, you are going to want to remove these. There is a lot of waste with stuffed artichokes, just accept it and move on.

This part isn’t easy. If you are having a hard time, that’s normal. The best way to do it is to dig at it with a melon baller. And swear at it a few times to put it in it’s place.

Feel the inside to make sure it’s smooth and none of that hairy choke is left behind. If it still feels fuzzy, keep digging. And swearing, if it helps.

Squeeze half a lemon into the cavity of the artichoke.

 Next you want to make the filling (recipe below).

Stuff the filling inside the middle of the artichoke. Starting at the outside, spread the leaves out and press the filling inside the leaves, work your way in until all the leaves are full.

Place in an oven safe pot, standing upright. Pour 1 1/2 cup citrusy wheat beer into the bottom of the pot.

Cover with a lid or tin foil and bake at 375 for 40-60 minutes or until the outer leaves come away easily.

Beer Steamed Stuffed Artichokes

Ingredients
  

  • 4 large artichokes prepared as above
  • 1 large lemon
  • 4 strips of bacon
  • 1/3 cup chopped shallots
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 cup mushrooms chopped
  • 1 cups bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup mozzarella
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups citrusy wheat beer

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375
  • Prepare artichokes as instructed above, squeeze 1/4 lemon into the cavity of each artichoke.
  • In a pan over medium high heat, cook the bacon until browned. Remove from pan, and chop. Drain off most of the bacon grease, leaving about 2 tbs in the pan. Add the shallots and cook until soft. Add the garlic and stir. Add the mushrooms and cook until dark brown. Remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients as well as the chopped bacon (other than the beer), stir until well combined.
  • Stuff the artichokes as instructed above.
  • Place artichokes upright in the pot, fill with 1 cup beer.
  • Cover and cook until outer leaves come away easily, about 40-60 minutes.