Steamed Artichokes with Garlic Confit Dipping Sauce

I’m just starting to get really excited about spring produce. At the farmers’ market, the first greens and sprouts are appearing, along with rhubarb and the first fresh goat cheese of the season. Even though artichokes don’t appear here in our New York farmers’ markets, their unique vegetal flavor still says SPRING to me. I like to imagine that I’m back in Florence where you can buy the beautiful and tender purple baby artichokes that can be thinly sliced and sauteed with garlic, olive oil and lemon or fried into fritters.

However, my artichoke came from California and I happily steamed it until tender and made a fragrant, warm dipping sauce from garlic, lemon and olive oil. I’m trying to come up with creative ways to use the huge bounty of garlic I have from last season. For this dip, I took the cloves from three heads of garlic and simmered them in a blend of olive oil and grapeseed oil, until they were soft and completely infused with oil. I blended the garlic confit with some of the oil, the juice of one lemon and some sea salt and served it warm with the artichoke as an appetizer for my culinary school buddies, when we gathered to celebrate spring this week.


Steamed artichoke with Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce

2 artichokes, tips trimmed off and steamed until tender and leaves pull off easily
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
Cloves from 3 heads of garlic, cleaned
Juice from one lemon
Sea salt to taste

1. Simmer garlic cloves in the oils on low heat until they are soft. They should be the texture of roasted garlic.
2. Puree the cloves and about 3/4 cup of the oil that the garlic cooked in, together in the food processor.
3. Add lemon juice and salt and combine.
4. Heat to warm before serving with artichoke