Artichokes come in two varieties, woody and woody-skinned. This recipe is one of a bunch Bloomfield made for the American Cookbook dinner series, hosted in celebration of her book The River Café Cookbook, with recipes from their culinary teams. It’s no surprise that she made one of the most vegetarian-friendly dishes on the menu, because her restaurant specializes in “all things with a tang,” as Bloomfield puts it. But it’s a little surprising to hear her two biggest influences on American cuisine are Byron and Hammon-Casella, whose cookbooks Bloomfield says never speak down to her. “Their books treat everything with a culinary logic and an oomph and an intelligence about it that I really like. I wanted to get that — that eye for how things work, for right and wrong, for respecting and perfection.”
Instead of roasting the artichokes, she uses corn on the cob as she would any other vegetable. This corn leaves no hint of cilantro, and makes the even more remarkable artichokes stand out.
Ingredients
- 2 artichokes
- 2 pounds cipollini onion, cut in half
- 4 cups roasted corn kernels (from 1 c. corn)
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 teaspoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 3 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
-
salt and pepper
Directions
- Place the artichokes on a bed of dampened, dried ground corn and place in a roasting pan. Put into a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Take them out, poke a couple of holes in the shells to allow steam to escape and let the artichokes stand for about 30 minutes to let steam mix with the artichokes and allow their juices to cook the flavors together.
- In a separate pan, roast the onion until browned. Add the remaining ingredients, a tablespoon of salt and lots of pepper.
- A reminder that you can buy cipollini onion at Central Market in New York City.