Description
Enjoy the delightful flavors of these meat stuffed artichoke bottoms infused with a lemony tangy taste that simply melts in your mouth. This recipe, utilizing frozen artichoke bottoms, is a hearty, comforting meal served alongside rice. This artichoke bottoms recipe is a perfect main dish meal that can be enjoyed at any weekday dinner.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 pound of ground lamb or beef (or a mixture)
- 20-25 artichoke heads (two frozen bags)
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil for cooking meat and brushing artichokes.
- 1 sweet onion
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg (about a pinch)
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (about a pinch)
- 1.5-2 cups of broth (chicken, meat or vegetable)
- 1-2 freshly squeezed lemons (adjust to taste)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt (to cook with the meat and to add to the sauce - adjust to taste)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Instructions
-
Cooking the Meat Stuffing
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, heat oil, add chopped onion, and sauté until caramelized.
- Add ground lamb or beef, and break the meat with the back of a spatula.
- Add the spices: allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg powder, and salt.
- Sauté until meat is browned and fully cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
Preparing the Artichoke Bottoms
- Take artichoke bottoms out of the freezer 1-2 hours before using or place in the fridge the night before.
- Place the bottoms of artichokes on a baking sheet and lightly brush with olive oil.
- Place under the broiler for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Stuffing Artichoke Bottoms and Baking
- With a spoon fill up all the artichoke bottoms with the cooked meat and onion mixture, and place in a baking dish.
- Pour in half a cup of meat broth at the bottom of the dish.
- Cover with foil, and bake for 40 minutes.
Preparing the Meat Broth Sauce
- In a small saucepan, melt butter then add all-purpose flour over melted butter.
- Whisk well over medium-high heat, for 1-2 minutes or until it's more pasty.
- Pour in 1.5 cups of meat broth over butter and flour paste, and continue to whisk over medium heat until the mixture is more like a gravy texture.
- Add lemon juice and salt over the meat broth mixture, and adjust to taste.
- After 40 minutes of baking bring the baking dish out of the oven, lift the foil, and pour the meat broth sauce over the stuffed artichokes.
- Cover back with foil and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.
How to Prepare Fresh Artichokes
- Prepare the artichokes by removing the tough outer leaves.
- Continue to remove the outer leaves until you reach the tender inner leaves. You can use a sharp knife to carve the feathery edges until all are cleaned.
- To prevent the artichoke bottoms' color from getting dark, it is critical once all are cleaned to place the cleaned ones immediately in a pot filled with water with sliced lemon.
- Rinse the water and dry them with a paper towel then deep fry.
Notes
- Sauteing butter with all-purpose flour can bring an additional flavor to this dish but you can use cornstarch instead: mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1/2 cup of cold meat stock (keep in mind that cornstarch won't dissolve if mixed in hot water), add lemon juice and salt whisk well then pour over the stuffed artichoke bottoms during baking per instructions.
- If using fresh artichokes make sure they are placed in water with lemon to prevent the white color of artichokes from turning dark.
- Artichoke bottoms do not need to be fully defrosted before preparing, however, to be able to break them apart, you need to take them out of the freezer 1-2 hours before preparing or place them in the fridge the night before.
- You can prepare the onion and meat mixture the day before, keep it in the fridge in an airtight container, and use it for stuffing the day of.
- You can prepare this dish the day before, cover and store it in the fridge and bake the day of.
- Sprinkle toasted pine nuts over each stuffed artichoke bottom after the dish is baked and before serving.
- To toast pine nuts: Either place nuts under a broiler for 2-4 minutes, or in a skillet heat neutral or olive oil, and sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
- Don't skip making the lemony meat broth sauce, this addition can bring so much flavor to the dish.