Whole, Roasted Artichoke

What on earth does one do with this mysterious vegetable?

YOU DEVOUR IT LIKE IT IS NEW YORK CITY AND YOU ARE THE HULK AFTER YOUR FILET MINON WAS SERVED MEDIUM WELL INSTEAD OF MEDIUM.

Small backstory. 

I have known I liked artichokes and I've even known how to eat some of them for as long as I can remember. My mom would boil them. Here's the issue with that: you don't really know how long they need to boil for and when was boiling ever preferred to roasting? Never.

Step one, cut off the stem. If you can cut it off so that it makes a flat place for the artichoke to stand on, great.

Now, cut off the top of the leaves. Just estimate. Not more than about the top 1/4, but you can judge. Now move it to a sheet of aluminum foil, enough to wrap it up into a bundle later.

Squeeze lemon onto the center and down into the crevices. Look at that perfect droplet…

Maybe drizzle some Oil of Olive. The extra card holder is best. (Card holder = virgin, for those of you who missed that.)

Salt and pepper.

Butter. 

Now wrap it up in a perfect little artichoke package of deliciousness. Put it in a 350º oven for about an hour.

Take it out, unwrap, and attempt to wait a few, until its handle-able. 

LOOK AT THIS.

I meant to take pictures of the leaves so you can see *how* to eat it, but, I got distracted by eating it. Basically, you just slide the "meat" off the leaves, just on the tips at the bottom. 

When you get to the center, the leaves will become super pale and impossible to eat. Just tear those off. Then you'll see this hair.

It's not really hair.

Dig it out, cast aside.

Once you dig it out, you'll have the center. I eat all of this part. It's the "artichoke heart" you hear so much about, you know, always hooking up with spinach and going for a dip.

I love this. It is super healthy, takes a while to eat, and is just flat delicious. It's a great alternative to the normal vegetables. 

Oh remember when I was talking about boiling it? Yeah. When you do that, you have to dip the bottoms of the leaves in melter butter, and I've even heard of people dipping it in mayonnaise  This method eliminates that step. The leaves are very flavorful. In fact, I'm going to go make one right now. For the third night in a row. 

I feel cleansed from the meatloaf now.