Artichokes: You Can Love Them

Just came across this written by one who has no idea of the real enjoyment of artichokes and the thought of stripping to the hearts without enjoying the leaves is, to my mind, criminal.  I have so much to add to this tripe, but won't post it because most people don't care for artichokes and the work required to truly appreciate them.  Here goes:

Amazingly -- even though a good portion of artichokes are inedible and preparing them is a somewhat arduous task -- artichokes are ridiculously versatile, and they're wonderful cooked any number of ways, with any number of other ingredients.

Steaming or Boiling Artichokes
Artichokes look unlike any other vegetable -- they're actually a type of thistle -- and they can be a lot of fun to eat if you steam or boil them in salted water, which is how most people have had them. They take quite a bit longer to cook than most vegetables; you'll know they're done when an outer leaf pulls away easily from the base, which will take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, sometimes even longer. The outer leaves will remain mostly fibrous but contain flavorful meat at their base that you scrape off with your teeth (preferably after dipping in olive oil, melted butter, vinaigrette, or mayonnaise), while the inner leaves are fully edible. And once you strip away all the leaves, you're left with the wonderfully tender, silky, and flavorful heart and stem.

How to Trim Artichokes
No matter how you're planning to cook them, you'll have to do a little trimming first. If you're steaming or boiling, cut off the top third or so -- there's virtually no edible material there -- then remove the very toughest outer leaves, the bottom 1/4 inch of the stem, and any pointy leaf tips. If you want to remove the feathery, inedible choke before cooking, pry open the middle of the artichoke and dig into it with a spoon to remove any fuzzy bits little by little. If you decide not to remove the choke before cooking, just eat around it and scrape it into the trash once you've gotten down to the heart and stem.

And so it goes.
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