Artichokes with Egg and Lemon Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

Serve 4

• 8 very young globe artichokes

• 2-3 tbsp lemon juice

• 4 tbsp butter

• salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 tbsp light/single cream

• 4 tbsp cold water

• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Method:

1. Cut off the stalks and remove the lower, outermost leaves of the artichokes. Use kitchen scissors to snip off the top quarter from each of the remaining leaves.

2. Preparing one artichoke at a time, slice into quarters from top to bottom and, unless they are tiny artichoke buds, remove the hairy "choke" from the center.

3. Cut each quarter into 2-3 thin slices, dropping them immediately into a large bowl of cold water with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to prevent them from turning black. Drain well.

4. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the well-drained artichoke slices. Season with salt and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes until tender. Stir and turn often, adding 1-2 tablespoons of hot water to keep them moist.

5. Beat the egg yolks, cream, cold water, and parsley in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Drizzle the remaining lemon juice over the artichokes and reduce the heat to very low.

7. Pour the egg mixture over the artichokes and stir. The egg mixture should turn creamy and thicken somewhat (this will only take about 2 minutes; do not allow the eggs to scramble). Serve hot.