Hearts of Artichoke

After a chilled out Friday in mid-November at the local snooker club with an ex-work colleague I followed it up with another mellow Saturday and Sunday of quiet winter walks and early nights due to a number of active things I had been involved in over the last month or so finally catching up with me.

On the Sunday afternoon I made a soup that I had been meaning to for some time but had been stopped by the fact that I had not been able to find a supplier of artichoke locally until I recently discovered a niche supermarket out in the sticks that sells canned artichoke hearts.

Today's album on the player was Yes' 1977 offering Going for the One. The band have created some excellent music over their career that rocks and is pretty atmospheric. However to be fair to their critics they have also been responsible for some genuine rubbish. It is perhaps for this reason that the NME once described them as the worst band ever, obviously the NME had not heard Blue, Hearsay or One True Voice before coming to this rather unfair judgment on the band.

As the pounding title track of the album bounced between the speakers I fried five whole whole garlic cloves (after having first topped and tailed them and peeled them) with a large white Spanish onion that was about the size of a cricket ball and had been sliced into very thin pieces. I fried them for about fifteen minutes in olive oil until the onions became translucent and the veins were visible. I then drained the hearts of artichoke from the two cans they had arrived in and then added them to the onions and garlic. Next I added a pint of chicken stock, a quarter of a pint of milk then simmered the contents of the dish on the hob for around forty five minutes until the artichoke hearts softened.

After leaving the dish to cool off the hob for an hour I blended its contents and blended it on a medium setting on the blender so as to ensure the artichoke hearts were properly cut up. I then added the mixture to a pan with half a tub of plain Greek Yoghurt, stirred the yoghurt into the mixture and then warmed it through. The dish was then ready to serve.

The taste was interesting but memorable as the artichoke made it taste slightly sweet and the shredded artichoke pieces served to provide some much needed fibre.

The Artichoke in a pureed form in the soup.