Beans with artichokes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup black beans soaked the night before (8-12 hours)
• 6 artichokes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 red pepper
• 400 g crushed tomato
• 1 piece of ginger
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups of vegetable broth
• salt to taste

Preparation

1. Clean, peel and cut the artichokes and soak them in water with lemon.
2. Finely chop the red pepper.
3. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker over medium heat and lightly brown the pepper.
4. Add the tomato, ginger and bay leaf and let it reduce for 5 minutes.
5. Drain the beans and add them to the pot.
6. Add the vegetable broth, the artichokes and the necessary water until the pot is 3/4 full (or the maximum limit marked on the pot).
7. Close the pot and put it on high heat.
8. When it starts to «beep» (steam comes out of the valve), put it on low heat and let it cook together for 25 minutes.
9. Turn off the heat and let the pot cool before opening it.
10. Stir well, add salt to taste and serve.

How to preserve artichokes

The artichoke season is relatively short, although there are many ways to preserve them to have them available all year round:

frozen artichokes

To preserve artichokes by freezing them:

• First we have to clean them, just as if we were going to eat them right away, and cut them in half or into quarters.
• Then, blanch the pieces in plenty of boiling water for 1-2 minutes (1 minute if quartered, 2 minutes if halves), transfer them to a bowl with very cold water.
• Then drain them well, dry them with a cloth and put them in freezer bags or tupperware well closed. They will last you 2-3 months.

To use them it is not necessary to defrost, you can put them directly in the pan, in the dish you are cooking, steamed, etc.

artichokes in oil

Another way to preserve them is in oil, just as we do, for example, with garlic or dried tomatoes.

• First clean the artichokes and cut them into the size you want (in quarters or halves, for example).
• Boil plenty of water with vinegar (more or less 1 cup of vinegar for every 3 cups of water) and spices to give them flavor (you can add garlic, rosemary, thyme, onion, bay leaf, etc.) and boil them in batches for 3-4 minutes.
• Drain them and let them cool.
• Sterilize the jars you are going to use by submerging them in boiling water and drain well.
• Put all the artichokes that fit in each jar and fill with olive oil until they are covered.
• Close the jars and put them in a large saucepan. with about 4 fingers of boiling water to close and pasteurize well.
• When they cool, take them out, dry them and store them in the pantry, they will last 6 months.

If you prefer, the You can store them in oil by preserving them first: Instead of boiling them with water and vinegar, cook them in oil at low temperature for 25-30 minutes, until they are very tender, and proceed the same.

Pickled artichokes

artichokes, like many other vegetables such as cucumbers, carrots, cauliflowers, peppers, onions or eggplants, They can be pickled and are delicious.

For this I recommend using the smallest artichokes you have or can find, Not only because they will pickle faster, but also because they will give us smaller bites that are easier to combine with other things.

Of course you can adapt the spices to your taste, using the ones you have or the ones you like the most for the pickles.

I recommend using garlic, mild-tasting extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, rice vinegar, lemon juice (and a few wedges if you want), cumin, sweet paprika, shallots, fennel, oregano… come on, very common ingredients in pickles.

• Before starting, Boil your jars to sterilize them.
• In a large saucepan, put a little water, apple cider vinegar (about 4 times more vinegar than water), peeled garlic, cumin and fennel seeds (or whatever herbs and spices you want) and a handful of salt and bring it to a boil. The amount will depend on how many artichokes you have to pickle and how many jars to fill.
• Remove from heat.
• Clean the artichokes and leave them in a bowl with water and lemon.
• When they are all done, put the pickling mixture back on the heat, add all the artichokes (drained) and put it on high heat. When it has been boiling for 1 minute, remove it and transfer it to the jars with tongs. adding, if you want, a bay leaf and garlic to each jar.
• If you don’t have enough liquid left to fill the jars, just add olive oil and vinegar until they are full.
• Close the jars and immerse them in a pot with 4 inches of boiling water to sterilize, for about 15 minutes. You can put a rack on the bottom so that the jars are not in contact with the bottom.
• Let them cool and they will last in the pantry for up to 1 year.
• The best thing to do is to try them after having pickled them, to see how they taste. In general, after 1 week they are already perfect to consume.
• Once opened, store them in the refrigerator.