The Sandpoint Eater: All choked up

By Marcia Pilgeram
Reader Columnist

When my anti-train noise neighbors lobbied and won approval for a no-horn zone in Ponder Point, I sorely missed those long, warning whistles from the big, blue-liveried engines of Montana Rail Link (MRL). Still do.

Sadly, those familiar blue engines no longer blow whistles. Anywhere. On Jan. 1, MRL discontinued its rail operations, and the line reverted back to Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). The former MRL line from Missoula to Sandpoint will now be known as the MRL Subdivision of the Montana Subdivision of BNSF.

I had a lot of history with MRL. In the early ’90s, when MRL was a young enterprise (founded in 1987), they purchased their first business car, the Silver Cloud, a beautiful, polished steel business car with a rear platform. Living in Missoula at the time, I was fortunate to help furnish the car with her first fine trappings and provide catering services whenever she left the static tracks at the corporate office.

In 1994, MRL founder Dennis Washington celebrated his 60th birthday to much fanfare, including a BBQ at their ranch, a street parade and dinner train filled with family, friends, politicians and celebrities. The Pullman-style passenger cars were owned by private individuals from all over the country. Later that week, we utilized the equipment to run a train to Billings, treating MRL’s shippers to a first-class passenger train experience. During that run, I became acquainted with the well-heeled car owners who wanted to operate a summertime passenger train. Soon, Montana Rockies Rail Tours was born, and I relocated to Sandpoint to oversee their operation.

From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, from May through September, we operated between Sandpoint and Livingston, Mont., using many of the same railcars from the birthday train. We ran two operations: the Northern Parks Limited (NPL) and the Montana Daylight (MD). The NPL ran as an all-sleeper luxury train and originated in Missoula, ran to Paradise to pick up passengers off a coach tour of Glacier Park, overnight in Missoula and Helena, and then ran to Livingston, where the passengers disembarked for a coach tour of Yellowstone National Park. The following week, we reversed operations and headed west.

The Montana Daylight operated as a coach and sleeper train from Sandpoint to Livingston, with an overnight stop in Missoula, and similar to the NPL train, it reversed. 

Running a private luxury train on a freight line was challenging and required considerable planning and logistics. The first year, my sales rep from Food Services of America (FSA) showed up with some beautiful baby artichokes to sample, which were perfect for our cold-poached Pacific salmon plate. The tour operator who bought the NPL trip series wanted oversight on the menus and loved the colorful and tasty salmon plate selections. Once we agreed on all eight menus for the trip, they were printed for the season (long before desktop publishing).

By the third trip, we were getting our groove on, and things were running smoothly until the baby artichoke incident. Those babies were back-ordered that week — a no-show on the FSA delivery truck. I searched far and wide for a source, to no avail. I desperately contacted the California Artichoke Advisory Board in Castroville, Calif., to see if they could assist. And did they ever. From that week forward, depending on our location, a case of baby artichokes was delivered via air freight to either the Bozeman or Missoula airport (and I learned a valuable lesson about overcommitting products to paper).

I can’t see a baby artichoke without thinking of that first crazy year of running passenger trains. I’m still grateful to the generous folks in Castroville and, to this day, I still get all choked up reminiscing about the rumble of those big blue engines and their long, familiar whistles.

I haven’t seen any baby artichokes around here, but it is the beginning of artichoke season, and I just came home from Costco with a bag of giant, perfect green globes. The price was right, too (my bag of four cost less than $2 each). They are ideal for stuffing, so grab a bag and get busy.

Stuffed artichokes serves 6-8

The filling is rich, filled with lots of garlic and cheese. I like to serve atop a platter of pasta, lightly coated in olive oil, to catch all the flavorful drippings in the pasta. Artichokes oxidize (turn brown) quickly, so have a big big bowl of lemon water ready before you begin. Delicious as a main course or add some seafood with the pasta.

Ingredients:

• 4 large whole artichokes

• 2 lemons

• 1 ½ cups fresh, dry bread crumbs

• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (use good Parmesan and grate yourself)

• 3 tbs finely chopped fresh parsley

• 6 cloves garlic, minced finely

• 4 tsp coarse sea salt 

• 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

• 2 cups water

• 1 cup wine

• 1 cup good olive oil, divided in half

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. 

Zest the lemon peel from one lemon and set aside. Cut both lemons in half. Squeeze juice from zested lemon into a large bowl filled with cold water. 

Cut top ¼ of an artichoke off and discard. Trim the tops of remaining leaves. Cut off bottom of stalk to create a flat bottom. Trim the tops off bottom leaves. Pull on leaves to expose the center. Remove the choke with a sharp spoon (grapefruit spoon works well). Drop artichokes into bowl of lemon water.

Combine ½ cup olive oil, lemon zest, bread crumbs, grated parmesan, parsley, garlic, 2 tsp salt, and the pepper in a medium bowl and stir well.

Sprinkle bread crumb mixture evenly into all the artichoke leaves, avoiding the thistle leaves in the direct center. Work mixture evenly in between all the leaves of each artichoke, tapping bottom on counter to settle the mixture. Continue with each artichoke until all of the mixture is gone.

Pour water and wine into the bottom of a Dutch oven or roaster, adding 2 tsp of salt. Set artichokes in the pot so they will remain upright during cooking. Drizzle juice of remaining lemon and olive oil over the artichokes. Cover tightly and cook until the leaves release very easily, about 1 hour. Uncover, cook 10 more minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes and serve as a family-style appetizer, a side or atop your favorite pasta.