Stuffed Artichokes

Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 1 hr 5 mins

Ingredients

• 6 artichokes
• lemon juice
• 3 cups fine breadcrumbs
• 1 1/2 cups parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup sweet basil, chopped finely
• 2 -3 cloves garlic, minced (i use 6 or 7)
• 1 1/2 cups olive oil

Recipe

• 1 trim artichoke (starting at the bottom, grasp leaves, bending backwards and snap off) up about 1 inch up from base.
• 2 snip sharp points off remaining leaves.
• 3 use serrated knife to take off top- giving artichoke a"flat top".
• 4 trim stem off at the bottom.
• 5 after trimming, place artichokes in acidulated water.
• 6 steam artichokes with lemon juice and water (i use about 4 lemons juiced) for 20 minutes.
• 7 while chokes are steaming, mix bread crumbs, cheese, basil, garlic and 1/2 cup of the olive oil.
• 8 remove'chokes from steamer, turning upside down to drain using a towel grab choke and with"flat top" side down press down smartly on the counter to"open up" choke.
• 9 then take bread crumb mixture and stuff between the leaves.
• 10 place chokes in heavy pot,stem side down, adding about 1/2 cup of bread crumb mixture to the bottom of the pot add 2 inches of water pour olive oil over each choke.
• 11 cover and steam over low or bake at 325 oven for 45 minutes, until leaves come out easily.
• 12 after removing chokes to serve, reduce remaining liquid slightly- the bread crumbs will make it thicken.
• 13 drizzle sauce over chokes.