Artichoke is a vegetable well known as French artichoke or globe artichoke. The flavor of the artichoke is delicious and nut-like. The buds and smaller heads are the most tender. People use its head like a hot vegetable and serve it with some sauce or as an appetizer. They grow 1 meter long and die every year after forming flowers.
We usually consume artichokes fresh or processed along the edible part representing artichoke head with a very small proportion. Artichoke helps in your diet to maintain good health. Mediterranean countries consist of 90% produce of artichoke crop of the world.
When you buy a small baby size or full big size artichoke, see that the artichoke should have fresh leaves and deep green color. The other reason is that it also gets spoiled when it is not properly stored with complete steps.
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How to store artichoke?
If your diet calls for artichoke hearts only, then plan on eating the fresh artichoke leaves at the first meal and save the artichoke hearts for the other/second meal of the day. Artichoke leaves and hearts both taste the same. The artichokes give a better taste if they are cooked quickly after bringing them from the market.
Storing fresh artichokes
Storing fresh artichoke is a little different as compared to other ways of keeping it. Please don’t wash the artichokes with water, or no need to cut them.
You need to put the artichokes in an airtight plastic bag and sprinkle water on them. Seal the bag, and the artichoke will be fresh for three to four days. But they only taste fresh if you cook them immediately after bringing them from the vegetable market.
Storing raw artichokes
For preparing artichokes for storage, wash them thoroughly and remove the outer leaves along with the choke. Store raw artichokes, but on storing raw artichokes in the fridge or freezer or some other place, they give off their pretty green color and taste poor on cooking.
We can defrost artichokes if they are cooked in some way. Can also can the artichokes. The artichokes remain good in the grocery store and shops just because of canning. The artichokes we buy from the grocery shop are not fresh, but they are preserved carefully with the help of a can.
Storing pickled artichokes
The hack to enjoy the artichokes full year even if they are out of season is to buy them from the grocery store when they are at the cheaper rates, so store them in the refrigerator, or the other way is to make artichoke pickle.
Can you freeze artichoke?
If you plan to freeze them, use tray packs or place the artichokes on the cookie sheet that you may have facing up. In case you store them in dry bags so. First, you have to transfer them to a container that vapors resistant so that there is no cracking risk under low temperature.
However, you cannot freeze raw artichokes; they can only be stored in the natural form. It would help if you blanched the artichokes first with a teaspoon of ascorbic acid and a half cup of lemon juice. This blanching process prevents the risk of discoloration during storing era.
You need to do this just a few minutes before the freezing process. Now the color of artichoke will not turn brown and will be delicious. After bringing the canned artichokes, you can further freeze them in heavy-duty freezer bags if you want to increase their life shelter. The artichokes which are kept frozen at 0°F will be safe indefinitely.
How long does artichoke last?
If the artichokes are refrigerated, they last for 6-7 days normally. We usually bring them in a jar and their shelf life is very tricky. The reason is that there is no sell-by date or expiry date attached to it in the markets and grocery marts. Instead, there is a purchase date on them, so it is necessary to know what to look for when an artichoke is not going well.
The jarred artichokes go bad if they are opened after purchase and not preserved carefully, while the unopened can last for a year. Uncleaned and unwashed artichokes go good for not more than four days if you keep them in a vegetable drawer in the fridge. You can preserve them in airtight bags, and then they’ll go good for about one week.
How to tell if the artichoke is bad?
Artichoke can go bad, and its leaf tips are split, shriveled, and look dry. When it goes bad, its color gets dark brown. Artichoke goes bad when you keep it under the specific normal temperature, which is suitable for it.
- Older artichokes contain hard leaves and are difficult to open the hard outer leaves.
- If the artichoke is dried out
- The bad artichoke contains a hole at its center
Sources
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