Steamed Artichokes and Sea Bass en Papilotte with Oven-Roasted Taters

Last summer, we planted 2 artichoke plants in our vegetable garden.  We were told we'd be lucky to get 2 - 3 artichokes from each plant.  The plants took over and we got over 20 artichokes from them! 

Steamed Artichokes

Trim the stems from the artichokes and place them in the basket of a steamer.  

Steam for one hour - checking the water level and adding more to make sure it doesn't evaporate.

We served these with Penzeys Creamy Peppercorn sauce for dipping.  Using a grapefruit spoon makes easy work of cleaning the fuzzy middles out so you can enjoy the heart!

 Sea Bass en Papilotte

This is one of the easiest ways to cook fresh fish.  It's completely versatile and easy to clean up.  You can use parchment paper or foil, but the basic method includes creating pouches for the fish and including any variety of fresh herbs, olive oil, wine, vegetables, etc.


Tonight, we had beautiful fresh Sea Bass that we purchased from Fresh Fish Fanatics right off their boat at the Channel Islands Farmers' Market.  We seasoned it with Lime Olive Oil, minced Tarragon, Parsley, Chives, and  Lemon Thyme from our garden.  We sealed the foil pouches and baked them at 400 degrees for 12 minutes.

 Oven-Roasted Taters

Warren Brown has a new cookbook called Cakelove in the Morning!  We tried this recipe using only new potatoes.  The potatoes were delicious, but the next time we make them, we'll set the oven at 400 degrees so they'll be crisper.

Enjoy!

Artichokes growing in our garden!