Stuffed Artichokes - the best

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• 6 medium artichokes
• Four dinner rolls (or the equivalent of bread, ten slices?)
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 6 cloves minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can pitted black olives
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350.

Use a sharp kitchen knife to cut off the stem of each artichoke. Make sure the artichoke will sit upright on the trimmed base. Reserve the stems.  Now lay the artichoke on its side and cut off about one inch of the top leaves. You want to cut enough to cut a bit off the tops of the yellow inner leaves. Use kitchen scissors to trim off the sharp pointed tip of each of the remaining leaves.  With your thumbs, gently pry open the artichoke. Start near the outer ring of leaves and work your way towards the center. Be careful to not break the outer leaves off the base. You will find that the artichoke leaves are stiff, but resilient. They feel a bit like hard rubber.  Once the choke is open, pull out about half of the center yellow leaves.  Start by pulling out just one or two and then the rest will follow. If you can expose the unopened flower at the center of the artichoke, remove that too - although this is not necessary.  Set the chokes aside.

Take the remaining stems and trim off any bad or black areas.  Remove any remaining leaves.  Chop what remains into 1/8 inch cubes. Set aside. The chopped stems will oxidize (turn black), but that doesn't hurt them.

In a very large mixing bowl, tear the dinner rolls into thumb size pieces. Add the remaining ingredients, except the olive oil, but including the chopped stems. Mix well using your hands.  Now drizzle 1/4 cup of olive oil over the stuffing and mix it well with your hands, kneading the mixture. Drizzle a bit more olive oil and knead it again until the stuffing will form a loose ball when squeezed in your hand.

Form a 1/2 cup of stuffing into a loose ball and pack it into an artichoke. Press the stuffing in tightly. When each artichoke has 1/2 cup of stuffing in it, distribute the rest of the stuffing into the chokes and really pack it in. Don't break the artichokes but fill them up well.

Fill a large roasting pan with 2 inches of salted water and one tablespoon of olive oil. Sit the artichokes in the pan and cook them uncovered in the oven for three hours. Check the pan every hour and add water if needed.  Two hours into the cooking, baste each choke with a spoonful of the water they are cooking in.

Remove the pan from the oven and let sit for five minutes before serving.

Updates from readers

May 2003: