Artichokes, Bacon, Cheese Muffin and trimming your Artichoke

Eveything you like in one plate; Artichokes, bacon and cheese muffin, nothing else.

I just thought that artichokes in salty muffins would be great.

I thought, I imagined and I was right.

Say I do, to this lovely flowers....

A week before we left for vacation, our market was teeming with green asparagus, bloody red strawberries and our famous southern france violet artichokes. I thought I will miss the chance to enjoy them since we will be in vacation for three weeks. But I didn't. I was lucky to still find some reasonably priced from my favorite farmer in the market. Although they were probably the last batch of his harvest but nonetheless I was excited for I didn't get to miss the chance to savor them this year. Provencal's violet artichokes compared to the big normal green artichokes are much smaller and much tender. From most of the people I know who are big fan of artichokes I don't know one who knows how to turn them around (tourner des artichauts) , the french cooking terminology to trim artichokes. So I just thought, It would be great to share this thing I've learned from one of the episodes of Joel Robuchon's cooking show.

The art of trimming violet artichokes:

1. You start with your artichoke and your knife.

2. Cut off the stem

3. Take off one by one with your hand the hard tiny leaves around your artichoke. You will continue until the tender leaves appears.

4. Trim the base of your violet artichokes with a knife.

5. Cut the remaining part of the artichoke with a sharp knife.

6. This will give you this result. Contrary to big green artichokes the small violet ones are much tender and does not require scooping the hairy fiber because it doesn't have one.

7. Cut them at your desired sizes. To avoid discoloration plunge them in water with lemon juice.

And for our recipe,

Artichoke, Bacon and Cheese Muffin

200 g of flour
2 eggs
1 sachet of baking powder
25 g of butter
25 cl of milk
2 tbsps of youghurt (optional to add fluffy texture)
6 heads of violet artichokes (trimmed and cut thinly)
200 g of Lardon (you can use bacon)
150 g of grated Gruyere cheese
some thymes and rosemary

In a pan cook the artichokes and bacon over medium fire. Add the herbes to flavor up the artichokes and bacon. Cook until artichoke is tender and bacon have changed color. In a bowl mix the eggs, melted butter and the dry ingredients (flour and bakign powder until it becomes homegenous. I added up two tablespoons of yogurt to make my dough soft and airy. I add little by little the milk until the dough is perfect mixed. Fold in the artichokes, bacon andcheese. I didn't add salt because French lardon are already too salty but if you will be using normal bacon you can add salt depending on your taste. Bake in muffin pans for 20- 25 minutes at 180 degrees celsius. Best eaten with green salad or to accompany your fried or grilled chicken.

One sexy little muffin....

For my french readers, the french version of this muffin recipe is here: http://www.lesfoodies.com/hilda/recette/muffin-sale-artichaut-bacon