[Contents]

12 artichokes

4 medium sized carrots

1/2 cup freshly shelled peas

12 spring onions

1 cup small broad beans

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. sugar

1 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. flour

2 cups cold water

Wash artichokes in running water to remove dirt between leaves. Cut off stems close to heads. Remove tough outside leaves. Separate leaves and push apart slightly to form a cup. Pull out the choke from the center. Rub each artichoke all over with a cut lemon (to prevent discoloration) and place in a bowl of water sprinkled with several tablespoons of flour.

Chop carrots finely. Trim onions, leaving an inch or so of green top. Place peas, beans, carrots and lastly the artichokes in pressure cooker. Add water. Cook under pressure 12 minutes. Reduce pressure. Add scallions and cook another three minutes under pressure. Then simmer, uncovered to reduce sauce. Arrange artichokes on a platter and stuff them with the cooked vegetables. Thicken the sauce with flour and season sharply with lemon juice, salt and sugar, and serve the sauce in a separate dish.


(From Food from the Arab World Marie Karam Khayat and Margaret Clark Keatinge, Khayat's, Beirut 1959)