Grilled Artichokes with Caper Mustard Aioli

This blog is written by celebrity chef and THOR Kitchen brand ambassador Derrick Fox. Each month, Chef Fox will be sharing his favorite recipes with step-by-step directions, pictures, and his signature style.

The Artichoke. You are obviously familiar with the artichoke hearts in the jar, in oil with some herbs. More recently you may have seen them popping up at your local grocery store, and thought, “wow, what do I even do with those?” Well, I’m here to help you conquer the daunting artichoke. The flavor of a fresh, grilled artichoke is delicious.

There are a few ways to tackle an artichoke. I’m going to share an easy way to clean, steam, and grill them, so you can eat the heart but also all that good meat on each leaf – #COOKLIKEAGOD!

Quick tip, there are videos and techniques that use lemon to keep the artichoke from oxidizing and turning brown. Because we are grilling these, we can skip that step.

First, make your dipping sauce. Chop up capers and parsley. Mix mayo, chopped capers, parsley, pickled mustard seeds, lemon juice, and black pepper. If you like spicy, this is a good place to whisk into your aioli.

Artichoke time! Start with snipping the thorn off each leaf. Don’t worry about the leaves towards the top/middle that are tight together. These will be cut off with a knife once we open it up.

Now that all the thorns are snipped, use a vegetable peeler and peel the stalk. Take it down until you see the tender yellow stalk.

Now once they are all are nipped and peeled, cut the Artichoke in half from the stem to the top. With a spoon, scoop out the choke, the fibers in the middle, and any prickly leaves. Once the middle is cleaned, lay the artichoke on its back and slice the top off where the leaves are tight and still have thorns about ½ an inch.

Next place them in the large steam basket and place in the pot with a couple of inches of water, cover, and steam for 30-40 minutes. Definitely check the tenderness at 30 minutes. Do this by pulling one from the pot and poking the artichoke heart. It should be tender, but not too soft.

Once steamed, remove from the basket and place on a baking sheet on their backs. You can do all those steps ahead of time if you like and put them in the fridge here and grill later.

Next, drizzle with grapeseed oil, and splash with rice wine vinegar, and generously season with salt and pepper. The grapeseed oil can handle the high heat of the grill better than olive oil, and the rice wine caramelizes nicely over the flame. Get the grill nice and hot, and your grill rack is nice and clean, lay the artichokes fast down on the grill and then close the grill for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, turn the artichoke 45º to get those beautiful cross hatch marks on the heart and grill for another 1-2 minutes. Flip the artichokes on their backs for 30-45 seconds and remove them from the grill.

When you place them on the platter or plate that you are serving on, finish with a drizzle of olive oil (the fancier the better, I prefer a Spanish olive oil) and spoon over some pickled mustard seeds. Place your sauce in a ramekin for dipping. Enjoy!