Shane vs. The artichoke

Shane Vincent — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:39:10 +0000

It was a good and fair fight. The artichoke came out on top. Its funny how until this day, I had never prepared one of my favourite things to eat. I will admit, I was scared to attempt to prepare them. I always avoided them. They look amazing, but scary. How they grow is even more impressive. I bet, most of you dont even know what a fresh artichoke even looks like or thats its possible to eat the leaves, not only the heart. I wanted to tackle my fear of them so I bought some at the souk last week. If you dont challenge yourself, things get boring and you wont progress.
They are not a very popular vegetable here, there was only one guy selling them. I was soon to find out why. I bought 12. They were quite big. I came to work early, not knowing how long it would take to prep them. I was planning to serve them whole so guests could eat the leaves with homemade caper mayo and then finally, reveal the exquisite heart. And then I was thinking of braising them in a homemade vegetable stock along with freshly podded peas and lemon. This was all a fantasy. It took me an hour to prep them, I nearly lost a finger and the inedible hairy choke part you discard made the floor look like a hairdressers. It didn’t yield nearly enough quantity either. I was frustrated but didn’t despair. I cooked them with some lemon and parsley and then tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper. They tasted delicious, but didn’t look anything like what you find marinating in a jar. So what I did was quite simple and brilliant. I hid the tasty but deformed hearts in a dip. Garlic, olive oil, creme fraishe, the artichoke hearts and some seasoning. I pureed them to creamy deliciousness perfect for dipping bread. It didn’t turn out too bad really. Until next week Mr. Artichoke… I will master you.

Hi and Welcome

Shane Vincent — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:47:37 +0000

Welcome to my website and my blog. This is the first post. For those of you that don’t know, I am living in a small beachside town in the South of Morocco. I am lucky enough to be able to walk 100 metres to a local market where I do my weekly fruit and veg shop. Today is Wednesday which means market day. I was greeted cheerfully upon entrance by the parking guy, and then the lads that are running the fruit and veg stand. It was early so they were still eating breakfast. It is not uncommon for me to have 3 breakfasts a day. The first in the kitchen, the second at the market, and the third with the baker or butcher. My second breakfast today was the usual souk breakfast. Bread dipped in dark green olive oil, poured from a 2 litre plastic coke bottle. The olive oil here is divine. It was competing with the aroma from the tea being poured by he guy next to me. I asked him what was in the tea and he pointed to the bundles of herbs on display. It had 3 varieties of mint, oregano, a lot of sugar and tea leaves. Man, it was good. However the highlight of my day came later, when I ventured into the village to buy bread. I walked past the row of butchers, trying not to be distracted by the decapitated goats heads and rotting corpses proudly being displayed out the front of each shop until something caught my eye. There was a guy next to the guy selling eggs with a massive pile of glorious looking parsnips. I could actually smell them and they were covered in beautifull soil. This man was clearly from the nearby mountains as he was only selling one thing, parsnips, and im guessing that maybe these guys that aren’t actually in the market can’t afford the fees to sell in the market or something. Anyways I bought 2 kilos of the stuff and I can’t wait to cook them. Im thinking of roasting them or I might make a soup. This is what is so inspiring about shopping at a market. There could be one guy only selling peas, or tomatoes or parsnips and it makes you appreciate vegetables. So, my advice… go to your local farmers market and appreciate and support locally grown produce that is in season. Until my next post… Have a good one.

theglobaltablechef.com

Shane vs. The artichoke

Hi and Welcome