Fried Artichoke with Blackberries & Mustard Dipping Sauce

6 min readJul 10, 2022

….I was learning how to speak English with Mrs. Brown, when I came to America. She was a very nice English teacher. I have a memory around artichokes with Mrs. Brown. One day, She brought an artichoke to my house and taught me a recipe using the artichoke. That’s when I first found out about artichokes. She steamed it for 20–30 minutes and cooled it down. Also she made a curry mayonnaise sauce for dipping. I remembered taking leaf by leaf as I ate, scraping the edible flesh off with my teeth until I got to the hearts. It’s still unfamiliar now, but it was even more interesting back then. It’s actually an unbloomed flower and has the highest antioxidants of any vegetable. There are many ways to prepare artichokes. They can be steamed, boiled, grilled, and even fried. Marinated baby artichoke hearts are particularly popular as a pizza topping and in salads. Larger artichokes can be served raw or cooked as an appetizer, side or entree, and are best served with a sauce to compliment their flavor. Today I bought some fresh artichokes from Whole Foods market. It was harder to prepare than I thought. When preparing an artichoke, discard the center “choke”(except in baby artichokes), but the base of the petals, the center of the stem and the entire artichoke heart are completely edible and easy to cook. Frankly, I wanted to make blackcurrant & Dijon mustard sauce, but I couldn’t get blackcurrant. So I added blackberries instead of blackcurrant and made my own. The result was not bad, and my husband was satisfied with it.

Servings: 4–5

Time: 50 minutes plus 20 minutes soaking artichoke upside down with cold water(remove the impurities by soaking)

Ingredients:

4 artichokes, peeled and discarded center choke
2 tbsp mixed vegetables juice
2 tbsp potato starch
2 tbsp flour
3 eggs
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
canola oil to fry
1 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 tsp mirin

For blackberries & mustard dipping sauce:

1 cup blackberries, mashed(or sift the blackberries with a strainer: remove the seeds)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp triple crunch mustard
2 tsp mayonnaise
sea salt to taste

….all mixed

Cooking Instructions:

Mash the blackberries with a mortar well(sift the blackberries with a strainer, if you don’t like seeds).

2. Add the Dijon mustard, triple crunch mustard, mayonnaise, and sea salt into the bowl. Store it in a refrigerator.

3. Get rid of the outer leaves until the lighter-ones are visible.

4. Cut about half from the top of the artichoke with a sharp kitchen knife.

5. And then follow by trimming about half an inch of the stem(stem is a continuation of the heart, so don’t cut it off).

6. Discard the center chock with a knife.

7. Cut them into small sizes onto a tray.

8. Sprinkle the mixed vegetables juice, sea salt, and black pepper onto the artichoke for 10 minutes.

9. After 10 minutes, coat the artichoke with potato starch and flour well. Dip them in the beaten eggs with a pinch of sea salt and the mirin. Press them into the panko.

10. Heat a pan with medium high heat and add the canola oil into the pan. Heat the oil 350 F(when you put wooden chopstick in the oil, there should be bubbles around the chopstick). Place several layers of paper towels on a sheet pan.