I love, love, love the cream of artichoke soup at Duarte’s in Pescadero. I’ve tried to make it several times–even using recipes people have gotten from the restaurant itself (which, oddly enough,are never quite the same)–and have always been disappointed. Not last night. I cracked the code.
Full disclosure: I used artichokes I bought in Castroville on the drive back from Monterey. You’re unlikely to start off with such fresh specimens.
Fill a large heavy pot with 1 inch of water. Add 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar, 1 teaspoon olive oil, and 6 medium-large artichokes whose stems you have trimmed so they can stand upright if they have each other for support. Bring to a boil, cover, and steam until artichoke bottoms are tender when pierced with a fork and leaves pull out easily.
(While artichokes steam, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small frying pan and cook 4 cloves chopped garlic until fragrant but not browning at all, about 1 minute. Set aside.)
Rinse in cold water until cool enough to handle. Remove and discard first few rings of leaves–they ones with dark, grayish flesh on the bottoms. Pull off remaining leaves and use a spoon to scrape off the edible meat at bottom of the leaves (put these precious scraps in a blender). This takes awhile–can I recommend chatting with your brother and sister-in-law on the phone while you do this? It makes the time fly by.
Remove and discard fussy choke and dark green parts from around the “heart.” Chop heart into quarters and throw in the blender.
Add 4 cups chicken broth and that sautéed garlic to blender and whirl until very smooth. Let it really go. Walk away if you need to. Let it go until creamy looking.
Pour mixture in a large saucepan/medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add 1/2 cup heavy cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Gently heat and serve with crusty bread and, if you’re up to it, garnish with a crispy baby artichoke. Well, only do that if you’ve been messing around with artichokes all day and have them sitting around. Otherwise, it’s just too much artichoke cleaning.
By the way, my dashing husband missed dinner with us. When he came home he asked Ernie how he liked dinner. Ernie said “I only liked the soup a little bit, Daddy, but you’ll probably like it a lot.”
Note: I’ll get a photographic step-by-step guide to cleaning artichokes up at LocalFoods.about.com later this week for any artichoke neophytes.
Jerry K | 27-Dec-08 at 10:34 am | Permalink
happy new year… a couple of questions about duarte’s artichoke soup… 1. how many servings is this recipe? 2. how far in advance can this recipe be made (will it store well in the fridge?)
tks,
jerry
Molly Watson | 30-Dec-08 at 5:31 pm | Permalink
Happy new year to you! It makes about 4 servings. If you want to make it ahead, stop before you add the cream at the end. Then it will keep a few days in the fridge or frozen for months! Reheat and add cream. Good luck!
Jennifer | 12-Sep-11 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
Thanks for the great recipe! Duarte’s Artichoke soup is one of my all time favorites! Cleaning all those leaves was well worth the effort.
Molly Watson | 14-Sep-11 at 11:27 am | Permalink
Glad you liked it, Jennifer – the cleaning is definitely the downside, but I also always find it worthwhile.