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Have a large bowl at hand, containing cold water and the juice of
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two lemon with the four halves of the rind. Keep the artichokes in
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another bowl of cold water while you are working on them. Take one
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artichoke at a time, drain it, and pull off and discard the smallest
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outer leaves. Holding the artichoke with its bottom toward the little
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finger of your hand, tilt the top away from you, and holding a small
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sharp knife tightly with your right hand, insert its tip, one leaf
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deep, into the tender, lighter part of the leaves. Keeping your right
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hand steady, slowly rotate the artichoke with your left hand so the
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bottom moves in a clockwise direction, and cut upward in a spiral.
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The tough part of each leaf will fall off, while the tender edible
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part remains attached. Peel the green layer off the bottom and stem,
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and then drop the trimmed artichoke into the lemon juice until you
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are ready to cook. This operation requires some practice; you will
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know if you have mastered this technique when the artichoke thus
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cleaned looks more or less like the one you started with, only
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smaller and whiter.
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If you are not ready to use the artichokes immediately after you
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have cleaned them, try to keep them completely submerged in lemon
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water. This is not easy. Artichokes are very buoyant and float to the
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surface making it difficult to keep them covered. An inverted plate,
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just a bit smaller in diameter than the bowl, place over the
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artichokes, will keep them below the surface. Another way is to crowd
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them inside a glass jar and cover them with the lemon water. If you
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plan to leave them at this stage for more than a hour or so, you must
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refrigerate them, but it is not advisable to keep artichokes this way
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for more than a few hours. Lemon is used to prevent discoloration; on
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the other hand, the lemon will cause the artichokes to spoil very
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quickly."
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