Help with Artichokes!
I have been cooking professionally for about 11 years now and am the executive chef of a restaurant in wine country...I have a question about cooking large artichokes, the 24-30 count case. I release them on my menu once a year as soon as the green globes come into season here in California. For some reason this simple task seems to go south pretty quickly and I am reaching out to this community to get better at what I am trying to accomplish...as embarrassing as it is not being able to accomplish something so simple. I tend to nail the cooking for a period of time and then they seem to struggle and I am not completely sure what is wrong with my process or if there is a better more consistent way to cook them properly. I originally thought that the variety of artichoke was to blame but I am suspicious that I am doing something to them that isn't coaxing out their natural beauty properly. They don't tend to cook evenly and the end result ends up being either stringy, over cooked, undercooked, or inconsistent doneness throughout. I used to boil them with bay leaves, lemon juice, salt and garlic, but they tend to bob and weighing them down became a pain so I switched over to cooking them in a 600 pan with a 80-20 mix of water and olive oil with lemon juice, bay leaves, salt, and garlic cloves up about half way to the top of the choke, stem up. I prep them by cutting off the tops about a half inch to an inch down leaving the choke in until fully cooked, also cutting off the thorns and peeling the stems. I wrap the pan with foil, bring the pan to a boil on the stove top and then put them in the oven at around 375 degree F (I've also tried 350, 400) and don't have the luxury of convection. Maybe a 200 degree oven is the way to go? I cook them until a knife easily inserts into the stem which is something like an hour-hour and a half dependent on the size. The stems often turn dark and the roasting process often dries the stems out and makes them stringy. I do pull them out when they are cooked put them stem up to drain but leave them in the walk in for not much longer then a half day to a day. So my question is this, does the variety of choke, time of year make that much of a difference. Or is there a better way to achieve better more consistent results? Sous vide is not very effective as the chokes give off a gas that makes the bags bob in the water that makes that cooking method kind of ridiculous. Anyways I appreciate anyone who has some insight, it is a huge seller at our restaurant when they are on but I can't offer a sub par inconsistent product. It seems so basic but its one of those things i need to go back to the basics and master before I loose my mind. Thanks guys!
