Grandma's Stuffed Artichoke Recipe

In our family stuffed artichokes are like gold. They are not made frequently, and when they are, it is in limited quantities. My sister and I always loved helping our grandmother make them. She is still the best at it, but we try very hard. Please forgive these directions if they are not very clear or detailed, I wrote most of them out when I was in eighth grade, and gram doesn't always provide specific measurements. She just "knows" what it's supposed to contain. 

Ingredients:


Artichokes
1 Piece of Bread For Each Artichoke (Stale is preferable)
Garlic Powder
Salt, Pepper
Corn Oil
Olives


Directions:


Preparing the Artichokes
1. Tear off small, bottom leaves.
2. Cut off stem from bottom and a 1/2 inch section from the top.
3. Using scissors, clip the points off of the rest of the leaves so they are blunt.
4. With your hands, stretch the middle out so it will be ready to stuff.
5. Repeat for each artichoke.
6. Soak each artichoke in a pan of water along with the stems that were cut off.
7. Boil the artichokes only (not the stems) in the pan of water until they are soft. (about ten minutes). This will reduce cooking time later on.

This is what the artichoke should look like after preparation.

Stuffing
1. Hold italian bread under running water until soaked. Squeeze it out and mush the bread together.
2. Rip the mushed up bread into smaller pieces and place in bowl.
3. Add and crush 8-10 olives.
4. Put in "tons" (Grandma was never good with exact measurements) of garlic until it "smells right."
5. Add salt, pepper, and oil to the mix so it is moist.
6. Cut the stems from the artichoke so that the outside skin is off. The remainer of the stem should be white. Chop this into small pieces and add into the bread mix.
7. Mush everything together with your fingers, adding in more oil if the stuffing is not sticking together well.


Preparing the Artichokes and Cooking
1. Line artichokes out to dry.
2. Start off by stuffing the middle of the artichoke. Really squeeze the bread down and place an oilve on top.
3. Stuff most of the top and middle leaves.
4. Line a pan with salt, pepper, and garlic. Add 2mL of water and about 2mL of oil.
5. Cover artichokes and cook them on medium heat until boiling. Switch to low heat and cook for an hour or two (it really varies) while basting with the juice from the pan every ten minutes.
6. Artichoke leaves should taste soft when cooked.

The finished product.