Artichoke Cooked In Apple Juice

Artichokes have to be the most annoying vegetable to eat. I mean you spend so much time ripping apart the leaves that you hardly eat anything. But hey, when you buy them for a dollar why not spend the time to cook and eat them. They're also very beautiful! 

So for this recipe I just used whatever was in my house and you can do the same. 

Ingredients

1 artichoke

1 lemon

1 cup of apple juice

2 cups of water

1 bunch of cilantro

Pinch of Tajin Seasoning

1. Like you would do with all your fruits and vegetables, make sure you wash them before cutting :-)

2.Next grab your chef's knife and slice about 3/4 of an inch off the tip of the artichoke. Then pull off some of the leaves near the stem and afterwards slice off the stem. Some people enjoy the taste of the stem but I usually just put it in my compost. Using kitchen scissors snip off any thorns that the artichoke make have. 

3. To add extra flavor and to make sure the artichoke doesn't turn brown rub it with lemon. 

4. Then place the artichoke in a bowl/container of enough water and half of lemon juice to cover it. 

4. Measure out your liquid ingredients. I used apple juice because that's what I had in my refrigerator but you can use anything that you feel would add flavor to the artichoke. This is your chance to be creative so don't be afraid to use any type of liquid ex. grape juice, orange juice or salted water. I added 1 cup of apple juice and two cups of water. 

5. After measuring out the liquids pour them into a pot and add 1 entire lemon, cilantro and your favorite seasoning. I chose a spicy and sweet seasoning that is most commonly used for fruit. Add your artichoke in and let it come to a boil. 

6.  Let the artichoke cook for about 30 minutes. The bigger the artichoke, the longer it will need to be cooked for. You will know when it is ready once the leaves start to open. 

7. Lastly rip apart the leaves and get your source of fiber! Artichoke is most popularly served with butter but it taste great plain. Enjoy! 

Jamie Oliver's Fish And Chips!

After watching the very first episode of Oliver's Twist starring Jamie Oliver I decided it was time to make fish and chips! You can also find his recipe on foodnetwork. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/fish-and-chips-recipe/index.html 

For the chips:

• 3 3/4 pints (2 liters) vegetable oil
• 2 pounds (950 grams) floury potatoes, like russets, peeled and cut into large chips

For the batter:

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of your favorite beer! 

2 egg whites, whipped to soft peaks

Salt

4 (9 ounce/250 gram) fillets haddock or cod, skin on, and pin boned

If you don't have a deep-fryer don't worry, just grab a pot and pour about two inches of oil in there. Heat the oil to 300 degrees F. After you're done setting that up, cut your potatoes into your preferable size for french fries or chips. You may blanch your potatoes if you like but I didn't and they turned out great. 

Next you can measure out your ingredients for the batter. This time I used 1 cup of Miller beer. You can always a little more if you'd like. 

Measure out 1 cup of plain flour. You may choose to season your flour at this point, which I highly recommend. Pour the cup of beer into the bowl of plain flour. 

Afterwards separate your egg yolk from the whites. You may choose to add the yolks to the flour and beer just so you don't waste it.

As for the egg whites you need to whip them until you can place the bowl upside down without anything falling out. Now this requires muscle, I always get tired when a recipe calls for whipping egg whites.  

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter mixture. 

Dip your choice of fish into the batter

Now this part can get a little scary! Fry your chips and fish in oil for a couple minutes. Mine were done in about 3 minutes. 

Drain your fish and chips on a paper towel before serving. 

You can serve it with bread, butter, pickles, pickled eggs, ketchup or salsa. Yummy! 

This recipe was remarkable. The fish was perfectly crispy, fluffy, light and delicious! Now that's what's cooking good looking!!!