Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Artichokes are in Season...


We had a fire in our apartment block today. I was grappling with proof reading a math paper when the sirens started going off. The police first arrived, then a fire engine arrived.

We could see smoke coming from an apartment located to the left hand side of us one floor below us and the air was quickly getting permeated with the smell of burnt plastic among other things. Neighbors were out on the road inside the community gates and outside and there were lots of people staring-up at the foul dark smoke coming from the offending apartment.

Then we saw water cascading from the balcony of this apartment and pouring down onto the newly cleaned terrace of the ground floor apartment below this one. I guess these neighbors won't be happy when they come home later on and find sooty water all over their terrace but hell...the fire was in the apartment right above them so I'm sure they'll be relieved that the fire didn't spread to theirs.

Anyhow after so much unwanted excitement Ronny headed for the Torremolinos mercadillo while I sat down to finish my work.

Ronny came home with these. Artichokes are now in season and cost only 99 centimos/1kg so it's something you don't want to miss just now - unless you hate artichokes.

So how do we eat our artichokes?

Ronny washed the artichokes, cut off the tops of each one, and let them float on water inside a large pot. He then poured the juice of one lemon into them, let the water come to a boil and then left them simmering for 25 minutes. We then removed them from the pot, drained them and just dipped the petals in melted butter and soy sauce and ate them all. The heart? We just shaved off the 'beard' and ate them in the same way as the petals.

Back in California in 1978 when I had my first artichokes, my mom served them with melted butter and lemon. Mixing soy sauce into the butter was something we stumbled on across accidentally, but since it tasted good this way, we've been doing it ever since.

7 comments:

Siri said...

Yum! I love the feeling of scrapping off the buttery artichoke meat from the petals with your teeth!

I'll have to be on the look out for artichokes at our market- I bet they'll be imported from Spain like most of our fresh produce.

Dewi said...

Oh that must have been scary to see a fire like that. I never seen one, and hope never ever seen one! Glad you are okay.

Love artichokes, I plant them in fall last year, to hope that I'll be enjoying their beautiful chokes this summer, but they are all gone eaten by gopher!!
Cheers,
elar

Murasaki Shikibu said...

Siri: You bet! I eat all the petals and give some of my hearts to Ronny. ;)

Elra: My goodness it was scary...and damn those gophers...lol

Anonymous said...

Oh Goodness, what a scare, I am so happy to hear your flat was okay = ) And those chokes are something awesome, eh? I love Artichokes, and you are luck to have a Mr. who likes to prep them too!

P.S. I totally dig your short bangs in your profile photo, so chic and runway like!

Murasaki Shikibu said...

Girl Japan: Some veggies I miss from Japan are Kuwai & Renkkon. Kuwai is great deep fried and Renkkon is great cut into big chunks and stir fried with some carrots and drizzled with soy sauce.

My bangs? LOL...You are really being TOO KIND...haha ;)

? said...

melted butter and soy sauce... I gotta try that soon

Murasaki Shikibu said...

heartkorean: Soy sauce and butter is good old fashioned 'guy seasoning' in Japan. Students (and I mean guy students) sometimes have their rice with soy sauce and butter wishing they had diced steak to throw in there. ;)