Roasted Artichokes

Have you ever been to Houston’s? Bryan and I used to go all the time for some great prime rib and and a bottle of wine. If they had it on special for the night, we would start with grilled artichokes as an appetizer. Delicious! Well, this week I noticed artichokes were on sale at Publix so I decided to try and recreate the Houston’s dish. After browsing the internet for recipes, I figured it would probably be A LOT easier to roast them instead of grilling them; however the effect was quite similar. These were super tasty, and a fun way to serve a new vegetable at home. I made a quick Cajun dip with sour cream, horseradish, kosher salt and Cajun seasoning, all too taste. It complemented the artichoke PERFECTLY!

Freshly cut artichoke.

Adapted from Novel Eats

Ingredients
2 artichokes, whole and raw
1 lemon
4 garlic cloves, skins removed
olive oil
salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Clean artichokes, then cut the end of the stalk off and trim the tips of each leaf.

3. Put the artichoke on its side and cut away about the first 1/2 inch of top of the artichoke.

4. Place the artichoke flower side down on the cutting board, stem up. Cut through the stem to the top of the artichoke.

5. Cut a lemon in half, and then spread the lemon on all the cut and exposed areas of the artichokes.

6. In the bottom of a baking pan lined with foil, pour approximately 2 – 4 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

7. Take your artichokes cut side down and spread them around in the bottom of the pan so that they are fully covered with oil and some of the salt.

8. Press a fresh garlic clove near the heart of each artichoke half, and then add a large slice of lemon on top of the garlic.

9. Put the artichokes face down in the pan with the garlic and lemon kept under each, then add about 1/4 – 1/2 cup water to the pan. Cover the pan well with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.

10. Once done, be careful of steam when removing foil cover.

11. Scoop out the furry choke and serve immediately.