Artichokes with caper and egg sauce: low carb

Yesterday’s lunch table for two was dressed with peach blossoms in recucled tiny juice bottles. I originally started to save them for the garden table, but the dining table took to them too. Both my tables are narrow and don’t accommodate easily big centerpieces and people at the same time.

I offer you that picture because I now offer you a recipe.

This dish qualifies for the not much to look at but really good categorization. It looks like nothing you ever dreamed, a veritable dog’s dinner., but it is a wonderful first course, center to a light meal or a vegetable with other dishes. I’m still hiding her photo behind the more tag, so as not to scare you away.

She’s slightly piquant, has some unnameable nuances and includes all the food groups. She’s very easy to make, needs to be made a bit ahead andkeeps very well in the fridge for a few days.

She has no bad qualities but her looks, and frankly, if your eggs have much yellower yolks I think she looks better too. What happens is that the egg yolks emulsify with the oil, so color in, color out. Mine were unusually pallid this week. The hens must be eating white daisies or something.

Anyway, I made this as a first course at Sunday lunch with a friend. It was a delight. I have some left in the refrigerator and they are reduced carbohydrate friendly, so I can actually eat them.

You can adjust how tart or how spicy the dish is by adding lemon juice or Tabasco. I’d say mine is medium. But then I would, wouldn’t I?

Artichokes with caper and egg sauce

4 artichokes, cleaned completely so that everything left is edible. Refer to “Carciofi 101” if needed.
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt

2 tablespoons capers in brine, chopped
about ½ cup (125 ml) great olive oil
2 dashes Tabasco
additional lemon juice as needed
salt or Summer in a Jar to taste
2 hard cooked eggs, diced

While cleaning the artichokes, drop them into the cooking pot into which you’ve placesd cold water and the first lemon juice. Add a generous teaspoon of salt and cook them for about 15 minutes. Use a sharp thin knife to test them. Insert it near the base of the flower and when it slides in easily, they’re done. I try not to overcook them, however, as they are much more pleasant with a bit of bite to them.

Drain them and immediately pour the sauce over them. Allow to cool to room temperature under the sauce. If the sauce firms up too much because the eggs have absorbed the oil, add more oil.

Sauce

Chop the capers and put them into a small bowl. Add the oil, the Tabasco and the seasonings and use a fork to whip it together. Add the eggs and stir it up vigorously again. Taste and correct for seasoning. Remember that it will be much milder added to all that artichoke, so it should be fairly strong and piquant on your tongue. Grind in a generous amount of black pepper.

Some of this depends on how large the egg yolks are. Bigger ones will absorb more oil and that makes the taste milder. Your own taste buds are your best tool here.

We ate this with a white wine called Vermentino di Sardegna 2009. Prosecco would have been equally as nice.