Well, it's artichoke season and time for me to make my annual investment in cream of artichoke soup. When I was in California I used to go to Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero regularly for this sublime concoction -- at $6 US for a bowl, it's not cheap, but it's not easy to make, either...

Anyway, I've had limited success with the recipies that have been posted on the Web, but I just came across a new one that suggests cooking the artichokes in oil before making the soup:

http://www.pelicannetwork.net/recipes/artichoke/duartes_soup.html

Now this is very strange, and I've never cooked artichokes in oil in preparation for puree'ing them before. None of my cookbooks talk about this. Any ideas on how to do it?