Roasted Stuffed Artichokes

My mother is from California, and even though I am not, she did her best to bring California to our little home in the northeast, and in fact, a number of home recipes that I was taught have “California Style” (yes even in the name directly haha! – I will have to make some of my mom’s “California Style” food for you all, cause it’s awesome) and so I grew up with a love of artichokes.  Most people when I talk about artichokes look at me with a weird look like “is that really a vegetable? I’ve never even heard of it before”.  If you have not yet been shown the light of this wonderful food, you must try it!

The classic way I am used to it being cooked is very simple – just boiling it in water seasoned with salt and italian herbs for about an hour and then dip the leaves in garlic butter and scrape off the yumminess with your teeth.  Another great way is to slice them in half and grill them.  Then dip them in a spicy ranch sauce. Yum!

But this was a new way of making artichokes for me, and I wanted to try it out.  I saw the idea over here on Group Recipes, and decided to give it my own little flair.

Roasted Stuffed Artichokes

Ingredients:
2 artichokes
1 cup italian breadcrumbs (I have some gluten free ones I keep)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (the packed in oil kind)
1 cup shredded of a sharp cheese (I actually used Gouda)
1 egg
juice of one lemon
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbs. EVOO
1 cup stock/broth and more EVOO

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375F.  Chop off stem, top part and leaf tips of artichoke.  The original recipe has you then scoop out the middle leaves and the furry part with a melon baller.  This was just not happening for me.  So I cut into the side and used a knife to get out the middle and the fuzzy part.  The stuffing still held together fine so this worked.
2.  Mix together the rest of the ingredients (up to 2 tbs.EVOO) – that’s the filling.  Stuff it in the middle of the artichokes, in between the leaves, everywhere.
3. In a large pot or dutch oven, heat up broth and EVOO to boiling on the stove (high).  Then place in your artichokes, drizzle with more EVOO and bake in the oven. I found I needed to bake this covered for at least 1 1/2 hrs, maybe as long as two depending on the size of your artichokes.  To test for doneness, take off a leaf – if the leaf comes off easily, then it’s probably ready.  If not, then no.  Sometimes I’ll just try to scrape off the artichoke goodness from the leaf to really test.  Maybe I just really like artichokes!
4. Once done, bake uncovered for  15 more minutes so the stuffing can brown.  Eat!

It seriously was everything I could do to take pics and not just dive right in!  The front of this pic is blurry from all the steam rising up, while it’s very similar to the pic up top, I just might like it better despite the blurry foreground.  What do you think?