Cold Steamed Artichokes by bookseller

Step one: Use a serrated knife (the Ginsu you got at the state fair with half a dozen steak knives is perfect for this) to slice off the top two inches. Fancy-ass cookbooks will tell you also to A) use shears to snip off the nasty prickles at the tops of the leaves, and B) to peel the stem; both of these are nice, neither is necessary. Step two: Bring a pot of water to boil; insert a steamer of some kind. Step three: Put artichoke in steamer, cover pot, watch rerun of "Top Chef." Step four: Remove artichoke from steamer (turn off burner first), stick it in fridge. Step five: Devour.

Yeah, you do have to remove the choke, which sounds terribly daunting, but in fact takes about two seconds with a teaspoon. And it's dead-easy to tell whether you've removed all of it. I am so loving this. I have tried them dipped in cilantro chutney, and goat-cheese and pesto dip (deeply boring -- so boring I am throwing out the rest of the dip before it can develop the kind of interesting green fur that is so difficult to remove entirely from Tupperware), but my absolute favorite is a very garlicky, very mustardy vinaigrette emulsified with a raw egg, which -- surprisingly -- keeps for weeks in the fridge. I'm sure it's not hugely healthy to keep the raw egg around for that long, but on the other hand, all the mustard and vinegar acts as a preservative.

Where I come from, melted butter is ALWAYS an ample sufficiency, though you wouldn't want to use it with cold chokes (the cold leaves would chill the butter and make it solidify). If you wanted to zing up the butter, you could add some lemon juice and/or maybe a little finely minced lemon zest. To eat the chokes cold, go for either your favorite salad dressing or any kind of dip you like with raw veggies (keep it on the thin, runny side).