Steamed Artichokes With Mayonnaise-Mustard Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 artichokes, washed and trimmed as above
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10 peppercorns
water, for steaming
Sauce
real mayonnaise
yellow mustard

Preparation

Place one to two inches of water into a large pot with a tight-fitting lid and add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, and whole peppercorns to the water.
Insert the steaming basket and place artichokes and trimmed stems inside the basket. If you don't have a steamer, it also works to place the artichokes directly into the water, bottoms down.
With lid off, heat until water boils, then put lid on and turn heat down to low to maintain a simmer.
Steam or simmer for 25-30 minutes or until a sharp knife can easily pierce bottoms of the artichokes near the stems. To be sure, test them all. Larger artichokes will take longer to cook. Remove hot artichokes from the pot with tongs.
To make the sauce: Mix about one part of yellow mustard into six parts of good mayonnaise. The sauce should be light yellow and not taste like either mayonnaise or mustard, but like a new sauce all its own. Add more of either ingredient as needed to get the \"new\" sauce.