Crispy Artichoke

The dish is inspired by Jewish cuisine in Rome, where Carciofi alla giudia is served in many restaurants today. The secret of the dish lies in double-frying the artichoke. First, the artichoke is fried at a low temperature to make the artichoke core soft, and then it is fried at a high temperature, during which the artichoke opens up and forms a flower-shaped dish with crispy petals, the core of which is soft and pleasant. According to the rules of Tasty Tartu, it is necessary to offer a vegetarian version as a main course, which must not contain meat. We chose Carciofi alla giudia as the vegetarian main course of the food festival. Most of the ingredients in this dish were the same as in the Beef Filet Mignon.

Preparation time: The entire main course takes about 3-4 hours
Level: Medium
Quantity: according to the number of diners

Ingredients:
Artichoke:
Fresh artichokes
Oil for frying
Sea salt for seasoning
Freshly grated lemon zest and lemon juice for serving
A small handful of pine nuts for sprinkling on the artichoke when serving
Parmesan for grating on the food

Potato boat:
Large, well-shaped, and undamaged potatoes
Oil for frying

Chestnuts:
Canned chestnuts
A little butter for frying
Garlic confit:
Single clove Solo garlic, top cut off about 4-5 mm
Oil for frying the garlic

Chestnut sauce:
50-80 g chestnut flour
400 g Parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
0.25 tsp thyme
4 medium cloves of garlic
1 stalk of celery, cut into pieces about 1 cm long
250 g Whipped cream
Black pepper and sea salt to taste
1.5 tbsp dark soy sauce
1.5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Caramelized balsamic shallots:
To make one pan, you will need about 200 g shallots, peeled and cut into halves or quarters, depending on the size of the shallots
Sea salt to taste
Sugar
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
30 ml balsamic vinegar

Fried shimeji mushrooms:
A couple of handfuls of shimeji mushrooms, the roots cut off
1 tbsp butter for frying
A pinch of sea salt to taste

Preparation:
Artichoke:

1. Prepare the artichoke. To do this, cut about 1/3 of the leaves from the top of the artichoke shorter. Also, pull off the outer, woody leaves. Then, with a spoon, remove the base of the artichoke flower, which is hairy and inedible.
2. Heat the cooking oil in a deep fryer or saucepan to 130 degrees C. Place the artichoke completely in the oil and fry for 10 minutes. During this time, the base of the artichoke will become soft, but the artichoke will not brown. At this stage, the artichoke can be frozen and stored if necessary. If frying immediately, let the artichoke cool.
3. To serve, defrost the artichoke, heat the cooking oil to 180 degrees C, and fry it for 1 to 1.5 minutes.
4. Drain the oil from the artichoke, and place the artichoke on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.
5. Shake the artichoke on top of the sea salt and grate the lemon zest, and also squeeze a little lemon juice on top.

Potato boat:

1. Boil the potatoes until semi-soft, about 20 minutes.
2. Cool the potatoes, cut them in half, and hollow out the inside of the potato so that about 1 cm of potato remains under the skin.
3. Freeze the potatoes completely at -20 degrees C.
4. Fry the frozen potatoes in cooking oil at 130 degrees C for 10 minutes.
5. Cool the fried potatoes and freeze completely at -20 degrees C. Potatoes prepared in this manner can be stored for a long period.
6. Before serving, heat the cooking oil to 180 degrees C and fry the potatoes for 2.5 minutes until the potatoes rise to the surface of the oil and have become golden brown and crispy.
7. After frying, be sure to shake the potatoes with sea salt.

Chestnuts:
Heat in a pan or over high heat and fry the chestnuts quickly for about 1 minute. During this time, the chestnuts will caramelize slightly.

Garlic confit:

1. Cut a 4-5 mm section off the top of the garlic.
2. Place the garlic in a heatproof dish or pan.
3. Pour cooking oil over the garlic so that it is about 1/3 to ½ full of oil.
4. Cook in a frying pan at 150 degrees for 25 minutes.
   Use the garlic as a side dish when serving food.

Chestnut sauce:

1. Peel the parsnip and onion and chop coarsely, and place in a cooking pot.
2. Add the garlic and chopped celery stalks. Cover the vegetables with water and cook until the celery and parsnip are soft.
3. Add sea salt, black pepper, whipping cream, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce, and crush everything with a blender.
4. Add the chestnut flour and stir. The chestnut flour will thicken the sauce considerably. Add water until it has reached the desired consistency.

Caramelized balsamic shallots:

1. Peel the shallots and cut them in half or quarters.
2. Place the shallots in a baking dish or heatproof pan. Add 3-4 tbsp cooking oil and a little sea salt. Cover with foil or a lid and bake at 160-170 degrees C for 30 minutes.
3. Add about 30 ml and lightly sprinkle the shallots with sugar. Cover the baking dish with a lid or foil and bake for another 30 minutes at 160-170 degrees C.
   Use the caramelized shallots when serving food.

Butter-fried shimeji mushrooms:

1. Remove the root part from the mushrooms with a knife.
2. Heat the butter in a pan and fry the mushrooms in a hot pan for about 1 minute, stirring the mushrooms constantly. Season lightly with sea salt.

Serving the food:

1. Place two teaspoons of sauce on one edge of a large, black frying plate and draw a wide stripe with the bottom of a spoon.
2. Place a chestnut on top of the sauce stripe.
3. Next to the chestnut, place a confit solo garlic on the sauce.
4. Place some caramelized balsamic shallots and butter-fried shimeji mushrooms in a fried potato patty. Place the patty at a half-angle on the sauce stripe next to the garlic.
5. Place a fried artichoke on the wide end of the sauce stripe.
6. Sprinkle freshly ground black pepper over the food and a small handful of pine nuts over the artichoke and grate some Parmesan on a fine grater.
   Ready!!

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