Page:Escoffier - A Guide to Modern Cookery.djvu/651

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Cut the artichokes evenly to within two-thirds of their height; trim them all round; string them, and plunge them into slightly-salted boiling water. Cook them rather quickly; drain them well, just before serving them, and remove the string.

Dish on a napkin, and send a butter, a Hollandaise, or a mousseline sauce, &c., at the same time.

When artichokes, cooked in this way, have to be served cold, remove their chokes, dish them on a napkin, and send a Vinaigrette sauce separately.

Select some very small Provencal artichokes ; trim them, and put them in an earthenware stewpan containing some very hot oil. Season with salt and pepper; cover the stewpan, and leave to cook for about ten minutes.

Then add, for each twelve artichokes, one pint of very tender, freshly-shelled peas, and a coarse julienne of one lettuce.

Cover once more, and cook gently without moistening. The moisture of the peas and the lettuce suffices for the moistening, provided the stewpan be well covered and the fire be not too fierce — both of which conditions are necessary to prevent evaporation on too large a scale.

Turn, trim, and quarter some fair-sized artichokes. Trim the quarters, removing the chokes therefrom; rub them with a piece of lemon to prevent their blackening ; plunge them one by one into fresh water; parboil and drain them. This done, set them in a sautdpan on a litter of aromatics, as for braising ; make them sweat in the oven for seven or eight minutes; moisten with white wine; reduce the latter; and moisten again, to within half their height, with brown stock. Cook gently in the oven until the quarters are very tender.

When about to serve, set them in a vegetable dish ; strain the cooking-liquor; clear it of grease, and reduce it; add an Italian sauce to it, and pour this sauce over the quartered artichokes.

Select some medium-sized artichokes; clear them of their leaves and their chokes; trim their bottoms, rub them with lemon to prevent their blackening, and cook them in a Blanc (No. 167), keeping them somewhat firm.

After having drained them, stuff them with a little Duxelles, S S