soapdragon Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Those cardoons sound interesting Major - I have one growing in the garden, so will give the leaf stems a try! You might want to scour t'interweb a bit. It seems the French tend to mound up earth around the stems to blanch them in a similar style to celery or leeks in order to keep the cardoons from going too bitter. Although what do I know? It's my wife with green fingers; I just cook what gets grown. Erk...not sure I could 'earth up' mine as they reliably get to at least 6 feet (that's a lot of earth!) Sorry to sound dim (make a difference from looking it ) but what do they actually taste like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majorbloodnock Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 Not dim at all. They don't have a strong flavour and any bought ones are bottled in water with some lemon juice, which adds to the flavour significantly. Have you had swiss chard before? If so, they have a similar but stronger flavour to the chard stems. Mind you, the dish has them swimming in a white sauce with bacon lardons and topped with comté cheese, so that's where most of the flavour comes from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Thanks for that; stupidly I thought it was the top thistle like bit that was pared down and eaten...a little like an artichoke. One certainly lives and learns on this forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
