Baby Artichokes

I recently made these really awesome baby artichokes for my aunt and her family. Two of them suffer from Celiac's Disease, so I had to make them gluten free.  My solution, Fish Fry!  It's cornmeal, nice and crispy and produces a great golden color.  My cousin panicked because he thought I was trying to feed him glutenous flour.  The batter also contains vodka, another Celiac friendly commodity.  The vodka is there to give a nice, crispy yet smooth texture.  Hahaha...smirk!  No my dear cousin, you can have fried food!  Hurray for fish fry!  Oh yea, and any distilled alcohol is ok for the gluten challenged.  The poor dear was so excited he got to have fried food!  Food that actually tastes good...not the usual flavorless gluten free crap.


So I used:
1 cup fish fry(we use Zatarains)
1 shot glass full vodka
cayenne pepper
couple dashes Tobasco
garlic salt
1 egg (to hold it together)
and about 1/2 cup milk(you have to watch the texture, you want it thick, but you don't want sludge)*note:make sure you use real milk, not that white water stuff that has no taste!
You can pre-mix all this and put it in the refrigerator till you're ready for it.


To prepare the baby artichokes-which incidentally came from California, product of USA-cut the tips off first. Then you will need to peel off all the dark green leaves.  It may seem like you are disassembling the whole artichoke, but trust me keep taking them off till the leaves are that nice light green.  You don't want to keep chewing hard leaves when you eat these. once you've finished de-leaving them, cut them in half long ways.  I trimmed the uneven leaves off with a knife after peeling them for aesthetics, but as they are battered and fried it doesn't really matter unless there is still dark green leaf parts on the artichoke. 

Once you halve the chokes, you need to take out the furry middle part that rests over the heart.  I've eaten these myself and obviously haven't died, but the texture is prickly and unpleasant so cut it out with a knife.  I also peeled the stems a little with a potato peeler because they looked a little rough.  I love to eat the stems, and if you do too, just clean them up a bit.  

Ok, your artichokes are ready to be steamed!  Steam them for about 15 minutes or until tender.  Now, I fry these in a pan and turn them to cook both sides(see above).  You can deep fry them if you like.  So once they are steamed, batter(submerge and cover completely in batter) them with your wonderful mix you placed in the fridge earlier.  Make sure your oil is HOT before you fry!  If you put whatever you're frying in the oil before its hot its going to be greasy!  You've been warned!
Fry in your HOT oil and place on a plate covered in paper towels to soak up excess oil.  Serve with Parmesan cheese on top. YOU EAT THE WHOLE THING!  Don't be afraid, it's good...really! :)


Last note, once you've finished frying, drain the oil into a bottle to use again later.  It's still ok to use again!  No wasting!


True to Culinary Misadventures' current trends, I forgot that I had my camera while I was making these.  So the pictures here are all from the end of the creative process.  Yes, even the picture of the lone artichoke above.  It was the last one and I almost burned it trying to get the picture!