Some cooked vegetables can be eaten without utensils

I like finger food snacks as much as the next kid, but one usually doesn’t think of cooked vegetables as something to be eaten with the fingers. Just artichokes come to mind, but now I can add another.I kid myself that I have some knowledge of obscure foods and can rarely be surprised by something really new. Yet, a couple of months ago, an acquaintance ordered something at a restaurant I’d never heard of and had no idea what to expect before it came to the table: edamame (sounds like “etta mahmay”). It was a big pile of what looked like overly fat, stubby bean pods. Everyone at the table dug in eagerly, and I found them to be really delicious. What were these strange and foreign beans? So exotic!Of course, I’m not so smart after all. Edamame has been around for a thousand years in East Asia. They are simply immature soybean pods, hand picked before they’re ripe — the beans are sweeter when younger. They are commonly boiled or steamed, and eaten with a little salt. You pick up the entire pod, and pull each bean out of it between your teeth, then discard the tough pod. It’s a really great snack and I thought, as I ate them and before I learned what they actually were, what a pity it was that these fancy and exotic edamame wouldn’t be readily available to me outside an Asian or hipster restaurant. Before you spade up the yard to plant soybeans, here’s some good news. You can find edamame in the frozen vegetable section of most grocery stores in our area now. You’ve probably already seen them there but may have been put off by the unfamiliar name. This is one of those times when you needn’t be wary of a frozen vegetable. In fact, if you were to find them fresh at a farmer’s market, the shelf life is really short and they should be eaten the same day as picked before they begin to degrade. The frozen beans I’ve had were quite good.They’re reportedly a healthy snack or side dish as well. They pack plenty of protein, fiber and helpful nutrients, so you really should give them a try. They have a distinct, mild, sweet, buttery flavor and couldn’t be simpler to prepare from the freezer. I’m planning to keep an eye out for them at the open markets this summer. Incidentally, if you haven’t picked up a couple of artichokes, the other finger food veggie, they require a bit more work but are well worth it. Expect to pay $1.50 or more each so they’re probably reserved for special evening dinners. To very simply cook an artichoke, get a large pot of water boiling. Cut off the stem of the vegetable, then slice off the upper one-fourth or so of the leaves, creating a flat top. Using scissors, snip off the prickly end of each remaining leaf, working your way around the bulb. As you finish each, rub it all over with a cut lemon to prevent browning. Add two or three lemons, cut in half and with their juice, to the boiling water. Throw in three or four garlic cloves and some salt and boil them until tender — start testing at about 30 minutes. They’re done when a leaf pulls off easily. To eat them, pull off a leaf, dip the bottom end in melted butter and pull off the bit of meat at the bottom through your teeth, discarding the rest. Once you get to the center, cut away the furry bit and enjoy the heart.