Stuffed Artichokes
This is one of the stuffed vegetable dishes Sarah Choueka taught me
during the Choueka family's sabbatical in Urbana in 1974. Although Sarah starts with
whole artichokes and removes everything but the bottom, I take a short cut of buying frozen
artichoke bottoms - imported from Egypt. The frozen artichoke bottoms are so easy to use
and are almost as delicious
as the fresh ones. I serve stuffed artichokes either as an appetizer or a main dish, paired with rice, salads,
bread, and tehina.
The quantities here serve 4 as an appetizer or 2 as a main dish.
Ingredients:
- 4 fresh artichokes or 4 large frozen artichoke bottoms
- juice of 2 lemons
- 3/4 pound ground beef
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup matzo meal
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 T. canola or olive oil
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
Cut all the leaves off the artichokes, leaving only the meaty bottom 1/4 inch. Reserve the artichoke stems, peeled
for the sauce, below. Remove the small leaves and
choke. Cut the artichokes in half and put them in a bowl of water with the juice of 1 lemon. Mix the beef,
eggs, matzo meal, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Fill each artichoke half with the mixture so that the result
is ball-shaped with half the ball being artichoke and half meat-mixture. Brown the meat sides in the
canola or olive oil.
Add the water, the juice of 1 lemon, salt, and sugar and any artichoke stems that you have saved. Bring to a
boil over low flame, cover, and simmer for half an hour.