Trimming and Cooking Artichokes

In most French homes and simple restaurants, artichokes are served whole with a sauce, usually vinaigrette if the vegetable is being served cold, and melted butter or hollandaise if it’s being served hot. (I also like aïoli for both hot and cold.) In fancy French restaurants, artichokes are usually trimmed of their leaves and chokes and only the meaty leafless bottoms used. In old-fashioned classic cooking, the bottoms made convenient holders for complicated mixtures of vegetables or vegetable purées and were typically arranged around some extravagant roast. The bottoms were, and still are, also sliced or diced and incorporated into salads or light vegetable stews.