Cottage Cheese Gribiche

A perfect pair for artichokes

My sincere apologies for my delay sending this out! I’ve been having some technical difficulties… I’ll have another fun new recipe for you at the end of this week to get us back on the regular schedule.

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A appetizer (ahem, hors d'oeuvre) that stands out from when I was growing up, and that always makes me think of my Dad, is steamed artichokes. Like avocados back then, they were really a treat. We couldn’t find them at the grocery store unless they were in season, and my memory is that we only ate them once or maybe twice a year.

They were also a lot of work — it wasn’t until one of my first restaurant jobs that I appreciated what a labor of love an artichoke is. Dad would prep them, shaving down the stem ends and clipping off all the spiky tips. Then they’d be steamed (seemingly for hours) and chilled, ultimately served with a dish of lemon salt–spiked cottage cheese and a big bowl for the spent leaves nearby.

Because the whole artichokes were typically party fare, we’d save the lumpy little heart for the next day. Dad would further trim that down and cut it into wedges, and it was just a quick little nugget of a treat, a bite or two for each of us, served right from the cutting board. Always my favorite part.

What a curious vegetable! The flavor and texture so appealing, but such a small return on the investment — just that little bit of meat to scrape off and the tender heart; otherwise so much inedible matter. Looking back I wonder if maybe what I liked so much about them as a kid was that artichoke leaves were such terrific dip vessels.

I know that a lot of people like thinner sauces or melted butter to pair with artichokes, but for me, cottage cheese still reigns supreme. In Snacks for Dinner I elaborated on this particular dip memory, giving cottage cheese the “sauce gribiche” treatment—gribiche being the punchy French sauce made by emulsifying cooked egg yolks, mustard, and oil, then given lots of nubby tang and texture from capers, cornichons, and plenty of parsley. While artichoke season is fleeting here on the East coast (in fact, I’m pretty sure I missed it, the ones I found recently were surely from California), I like it with asparagus, too — and really any kind of scoopable food, including potato chips.