Artichoke dip - for special occasions

This, is a freaking delicious dish. This, is a crowd pleaser. Great for parties, pot luck, or if you just love to share the love of cooking. It is however, not a quick easy weekday dinner and may take a bit time to cook and needs a bit a prep - I say an hour and half ish. So, better to save this for a weekend endeavor!

Artichoke has magnesium and folate in it - and some research has found some anti-cholesterol properties in them. They contain fair amount antioxidants, which is a huge plus. Also, the flowers are apparently quite beautiful - though we eat the bulb before it flowers so I have not ever seen one flowering. Overall, I have to admit I found it being a weird sort of vegetable. I didn't grow up with this vegetable. Also, the prep seems a bit long and tedious for such a small reward. But, it seems to be a favorite for many - and I'm all for trying new ingredients.

What you need:
- 5 artichokes, bay leaves, lemon - or a can of prepared choke hearts
- 1/2 pound of spinach
- 1 red onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp of flour
- 3 tbsp of butter
- salt, pepper, and a bunch of herbs (oregano, thyme, paprika, pepper flakes, garlic and onion powder)
- 1 cup of mozzarella - cubed
- 1/2 cup of Parmesan
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1-2 tbsp of mustard (or more if you like)

Recipe:
1) Choke prep: This is most time consuming step. If you want to use the canned artichokes this will save you some time. (*)
- Boil the artichokes for about an hour with bay leaf, lemon with skin off, salt. This will infuse all the awesome flavors of bayleaves into the artichoke hearts. cook on slow, put a plate or spoon on the top of the pot to make sure the chokes are all covered by water and put stove on med-low so it doesn't boil over.
- let the chokes cool down (about 15-20 min), cut the hard external leaves off, the root bit (attached to the stem) sometimes have a pocket of choke flesh - don't discard all the leaves, make sure you get as much flesh off the leaves with a knife.
- clean out the heart fuzz and chop the choke into cubes, set aside.

2) Spinach blanch prep: you can skip this but I like the greens and health benefits of spinach, so we're gonna do it, because YASS to the nutrients. This only takes about 5 min.
- boil spinach on boiled water for 30 seconds, throw into ice bath to halt the cooking process. Yes we blanch these.
- drain and squeeze excess liquids out of the spinach with a dish towel. Set aside.

3) Make a roux:
- Roux is this mixture of equal parts of fats and flour. It's an important part of many sauces, soups, gravy. So this part will make the dish super duper.
- butter and flour into the pan on med-high and stir frequently.
- add onion and garlic in here to cook down a bit, until soft and translucent. Mmm your house will smell so delicious.

4) Mix and bake:
- Now we are ready to get baking. remember all the stuff we prepped and chopped and set aside? Yup we're going to put that in a bowl and mix. Also add: sour cream, cheeses, mustard, herbs, mayo. Be a bit creative with the herbs: I added some Italian flavors namely oregano, thyme, chili, some salt and pepper. I also added more mustard because whole seed Dijon is dah bomb.
- mix gently, don't over do it, things will melt as you bake. It's all good. I sprinkled some Parmesan on top at the end.
- 400F, bake for about 20 min. boil for the last 2 min to make the cheese all bubbly.

Put some chips in a bowl, crack open a beer, anyone? The portions I made we ate for a few days, it's a lot of food and super dense. All the cheeses and dairy in that dish is a lot of calories, so yup it tastes great but try not to overdo it. :)

And finally, credits to husband for doing most of the cooking for this one. This is his recipe that came from a bit of trial and error, many attempts over a few months, experimentation and perfecting it, and using my in-laws as test subjects - and yup they loved it. So there you have it, hope you like it.


Notes:
- *canned chokes are okay, if you want to save time. But it does NOT taste the same. The canned chokes do not taste as good because they are softer and mushier, also not as flavorful. The chokes you make yourself, while time consuming, are sooo full of lemon and bayleaf flavors and more textured. If you have the time, do the chokes from scratch!