Artichokes with Hollandaise Sauce – Perfect for Dipping
With spring comes the season for my two absolute favorite vegetables – artichokes and asparagus. Artichokes are such a treat. I grew up eating them every spring, pulling out the meaty leaves and dipping them in butter. I still enjoy them dipped in butter, but as I have broadened my culinary horizons, I have also come to love Hollandaise Sauce as a dipping option for Artichokes.
Since I have been eating these lovely spring treats since I was a little girl, I have quite a frame of reference. Even as far back as 10 years ago, I remember that it was not even an option to consider not trimming the “thorny” ends off of the leaves. If you left your Artichoke untrimmed, you were guaranteed a prickly experience! It seams as we have approached a point on the “artichoke development timeline” that the thorns are not really there! You can obviously prepare them in the traditional way, using your bread knife to trim the top 1/2″-1″ off the top of the artichoke, then individually trimming the thorns off of the remaining leaves. But, as mentioned, I haven’t done this for years. I have simply trimmed the stem off, leaving about 1/4″, and plucked off any damaged or unsightly little leaves around the base. This makes preparation SUPER quick and simple. You might find a pokey leaf or two at the very interior of your artichoke, but that is to be expected. To cook artichokes, I prefer the no-fuss method of simply boiling them.
About Hollandaise Sauce
Hollandaise Sauce is one of the “Mother Sauces” in French cooking. Mother sauces are foundational sauces in French cuisine that serve as the base for many other sauces, known as daughter sauces. They were first classified by chef Marie-Antoine Carême and later codified by Auguste Escoffier. These sauces are essential for creating a variety of dishes and are fundamental in mastering culinary techniques such as thickening, emulsification, and flavor balancing. You can transform each mother sauce can be into numerous derivative sauces by adding different ingredients, which allows for a wide range of flavors and applications in cooking. Hollandaise sauce is known for its rich, buttery flavor with a hint of lemon. It is primarily made from egg yolks, melted butter, and lemon juice. You can use this sauce in dishes like Eggs Benedict, or serve it with vegetables such as asparagus and artichokes. It also goes well as over fish and steak.
Hollandaise serves as the base for several derivative sauces, including:
- Béarnaise Sauce: Made by adding tarragon and shallots.
- Sauce Maltaise: Incorporates blood orange juice and zest.
- Sauce Mousseline: Folding whipped cream into Hollandaise for a lighter texture.
Making Hollandaise
Making Hollandaise traditionally, you use a whisk with lots of elbow grease. I have adopted a much easier and faster method (less than 5 minutes) using an immersion blender. This method is super easy and has given me consistent results. Egg yolks will absorb a certain amount of butter when added gradually. Addin too quickly, your sauce will not thicken. If you add too much butter, your sauce will curdle. A safe ratio of butter to yolk is 1/4 cup melted butter to 1 egg yolk.
Artichokes have a reputation of being a “pain” to prepare, and Hollandaise Sauce a tricky companion. But, by choosing your artichokes well and using the immersion blender for your sauce, you actually have a super easy, yet delicious treat in store for your dinner.
Hollandaise Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Butter, melted Use a thermometer to bring it to 150° – Not too hot to cook the egg yolks, but warm enough to blend in perfectly.
- 2 Egg Yolks, room temperature
- 1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice, fresh squeezed
- Pinch Salt
Instructions
- Melt butter over low heat to 150°
- While butter is melting, add Egg Yolks, Lemon Juice and Salt to a wide mouth mason jar.
- Using an immersion blender, whirl for about 10 seconds, until mixed and foamy.
- Once butter is the right temperature, drizzle into yolk mixture gently, and a little bit at a time, blending constantly.
- Your sauce will thicken as you blend. If too thick, you can add a bit of water, a teaspoon at a time, to bring to the consistency that you desire.
- Drizzle over veggies, seafood, or Eggs Benedict…. or use as a lovely dipping sauce. Enjoy.
Notes
Boiled Artichokes
Ingredients
- 1 (or more) Artichokes
Instructions
Cooking
- Depending on the "prickliness" of the artichoke, trip the top 1/2"-1" of the leaves by sawing off with a bread knife. Individually clip off any remaining thorns with kitchen shears.
- With bread knife trip stem, leaving 1/4"-1/2". Pluck little leaves off bottom.
- Add to large pot of boiling water. Boil for at least 45 minutes, or until center leaf is easily removed.
- Using tongs, remove Artichoke from water. Turn upside down over pot to drain water. Put in bowl.
Eating
- To eat, you will want to ready a dipping sauce for dipping the leaves and heart. Melted, salted butter or Hollandaise are perfect.
- To maneuver eating an artichoke: Pluck leaves one at a time. Dip in Sauce and scrape the meaty end portion of the leaf off with your lower teeth. Work your way to the center of the Artichoke.
- Once the leaves get too small to enjoy, take a spoon and gently scoop out the little leaves and the "downy" inside. Cut off what remains of the stem. You will have a round disk of Artichoke Heart.
- Slice this into bite sized pieces. Dip and Enjoy.
so good!! interesting about the smaller thorns, i hadn’t noticed that until you mentioned it!