I decided that today was the day to harvest my first
artichoke of the season and do something special with it: alcachofas con jamón.
I discovered this dish long ago while dining at the Museo del Jamón in Madrid. As
the name of the dish indicates (not to mention the restaurant where I first ate
it), this dish is supposed to contain jamón serrano. And as the name of my blog
indicates, jamón serrano is very important to me. Unfortunately today I had no
ham, but I did have an artichoke that was just crying out to be cooked. So I used
bacon. I used a couple recipes I found online (here and here) as references and came up with
this, adapted to one large artichoke.´
1 large globe artichoke
lemon juice
2 slices of bacon, diced, cooked, and drained
¼ small onion, minced
1 garlic clove, sliced thin
½ small carrot, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons water (you may want to use cooking water from the
artichokes)
Kosher salt,
to taste
Trim the
sharp ends off the artichoke and remove tough outer leaves. Cut artichoke into
eighths. Place in a pot of boiling water, with a dash of lemon juice, and cook
for 10 minutes. Chokes should still be firm but verging on al dente. Drain and
set aside.
In a frying pan over medium high heat, saute the onion,
carrot and garlic in the olive oil until tender. Add the bacon, stir for a
moment, then add a scant teaspoon of flour, salt, wine and water and bring to a
boil. Add the artichokes, stir until well coated with sauce, cover and simmer until
tender (about 10-15 minutes). Check for salt and serve hot.
