Grilled Artichokes with Lemon-Garlic Aioli, influenced by Ina Garten

I love artichokes! I am fortunate to live 20 minutes away from Castroville, California-- the Artichoke Capital of the World. I can remember, back in the day, trail riding my horse along the artichoke fields as we would head for the state beach where my Arabian and I could gallop along the water. I was always tempted to take some of those wonderful 'chokes with me, but I never did. I have too much respect for growers, and I know that's theft.

Fortunately, artichokes are coming into season and are the large ones are selling for less than $1.00. Oh yeah! I stocked up on those.

My husband, who is from Missouri, doesn't have the love affair that I do for these wonderful thistles. The brown edges don't scare me at all-- some of that comes from frost. I usually steam my artichokes in my pressure cooker.

I like to cut off the top to a flat edge, and then trim the stems. I pull off excess tiny leaves and then place them, cut side down, into my pressure cooker. I place 1 cup of water on the bottom, close the lid and pressure cook on low for 11 minutes! If you don't have a pressure cooker (and I cannot imagine not having one), these can take 45 minutes or more to cook!

These are ready to go! However, I wanted to do something a little different. I decided to marinate baste these in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I thought about cutting these in half, but I decided to grill them "whole".

Then, I decided to take a photo with flash (the sun had already gone down)...

What a difference!

I found one lonely little hamburger patty, so I moved the artichokes aside and threw it on the grill...

I cannot wait for the weather to stay warm, because I love grilled food!

Traditionally, I dip the artichokes in mayonnaise. Some people prefer butter, but mayo is the way to go. However, I wanted to make an aioli, so I searched for ideas. I didn't want to mess with raw eggs, and then I spotted Ina Garten's version that uses a slice of bread and mayonnaise. Aha! I had one slice of sour dough bread that I didn't want to waste. I soaked the bread in a little white wine vinegar, added mayo, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic (opting not to add fresh parsley or any herbs, this time) in my mini chopper:

Delicious!

I ran out of light, so I couldn't take a lot of photographs. Trust me, this is a great way to try artichokes. They're even delicious, cold.