How To Clean Artichokes-Roman Jewish Style
Submitted by DEVON
How to clean artichokes Roman Jewish style: a spiral trimming technique that strips away tough leaves while keeping the tender heart and stem intact in one whole, flower-shaped piece. The essential prep for carciofi alla giudia.
YIELD
1 batchPREP
30 minCOOK
0 minREADY
30 minThe Roman Jewish technique for cleaning artichokes is a specific skill with a precise goal: when you finish, the artichoke should still look like an artichoke, just smaller and paler. You spiral your knife upward through the leaves, cutting off only the tough outer fibers while keeping the tender inner portion of each leaf attached. The whole thing stays in one piece, which is exactly what carciofi alla giudia needs to bloom into its iconic flower shape during frying.
Lemon water does double duty here. The acid prevents the oxidation that turns cut artichokes brown, and the trimmed halves of rind add extra brightness as they steep. Just do not leave the cleaned artichokes soaking too long. Lemon prevents discoloration but also speeds spoilage, so plan to cook within an hour or two of trimming.
Kitchen Tips
- Practice on a small artichoke first. The spiral cut takes some muscle memory.
- Keep your knife hand steady and rotate the artichoke clockwise into the blade rather than moving the knife around it. The motion gives a much cleaner spiral.
- Strip the small bitter outer leaves before you start spiraling. They would not survive the trim anyway.
- Peel the green skin off the bottom and stem with a vegetable peeler for tighter control than a knife allows.
- Artichokes float aggressively. Use an inverted small plate or pack them into a glass jar to keep them fully submerged.
Variations
- Use Meyer lemons when in season for sweeter acid and a less harsh flavor.
- Try the technique on baby artichokes for an easier first attempt. They have less choke to deal with.
Ingredients
Directions
Have a large bowl at hand, containing cold water and the juice of two lemons with the four halves of the rind.
Keep the artichokes in another bowl of cold water while you are working on them.
Take one artichoke at a time, drain it, and pull off and discard the smallest outer leaves.
Holding the artichoke with its bottom toward the little finger of your hand, tilt the top away from you, and holding a small sharp knife tightly with your right hand, insert its tip, one leaf deep, into the tender, lighter part of the leaves.
Keeping your right hand steady, slowly rotate the artichoke with your left hand so the bottom moves in a clockwise direction, and cut upward in a spiral.
The tough part of each leaf will fall off, while the tender edible part remains attached.
Peel the green layer off the bottom and stem, and then drop the trimmed artichoke into the lemon juice until you are ready to cook.
This operation requires some practice; you will know if you have mastered this technique when the artichoke thus cleaned looks more or less like the one you started with, only smaller and whiter.
If you are not ready to use the artichokes immediately after you have cleaned them, try to keep them completely submerged in lemon water.
This is not easy.
Artichokes are very buoyant and float to the surface making it difficult to keep them covered.
An inverted plate, just a bit smaller in diameter than the bowl, place over the artichokes, will keep them below the surface.
Another way is to crowd them inside a glass jar and cover them with the lemon water.
If you plan to leave them at this stage for more than a hour or so, you must refrigerate them, but it is not advisable to keep artichokes this way for more than a few hours.
Lemon is used to prevent discoloration; on the other hand, the lemon will cause the artichokes to spoil very quickly.
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