This supremely elegant dish offers serious "wow" factor. The artichoke heart serves as a boat for delicately poached eggs. To use as a starter, plan on 1 egg and 1 artichoke heart per person (as written below, serves 4 for an appetizer) or double for an entrée.

Ingredients:

• 4 large organically grown artichokes
• 4 large Clifford Family Farms local eggs
• 4 oz. organically grown porcini, shittake, or any other mushroom, your choice.
• 1 ½ cups Rosehill whipping cream
• 1 oz. Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• ½ teaspoon truffle oil
• 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon King Arthur Flour
• 1 tablespoon LHF California extra virgin olive oil
• a few sprigs of organically grown Italian parsley
• 1 teaspoon wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prep:

Coarsely chop the mushrooms.

Grate the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

Chop the parsley

Prepare a large bowl of cold water.

Cut the lemon in half. Squeeze and reserve juice from one half, squeeze juice from the other half into the water, and drop both haves into the cold water.

To prepare the artichokes: Working one artichoke at a time, cut off the stem, and place the stem in the lemon water. Trim ¼ inch from the end of stem to reveal core, and trim sides to reveal pale inner core. Discard trimmings.

Slice off the top 1 inch of the artichoke. Snap off the outer leaves at the base, working until you reach the pale yellow center leaves. Cut off the tops of all but ½ inch of the pale center leaves. Trim off any remaining dark green or fibrous parts of the sides. Drop the artichoke into the lemon water.

Trim remaining artichokes in the same manner. 

Instructions:

Using a large soup or stock pot, whisk flour and 2 quarts of water. When combined, stir in the olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and salt to taste, and bring to a low boil.

Add in artichoke stems and bottoms. Simmer, partially covered, until just tender, about 15 – 20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Reserving cooking water, set aside artichoke bottoms. Once cool enough to handle, trim off a thin slice as needed to that the artichoke bottoms can stand upright. Reserve the trimmings.

Scoop out the inedible fuzzy choke as well as any remaining pointy leaves and discard.

With a slotted spoon, scoop out the stem. Place artichoke hearts back into the warm cooking water until just before serving.

Coarsely chop the stem and any remaining trimmings to use in the sauce.

While the artichokes are first simmering, in a medium saucepan mix the chopped mushrooms, cream, grated cheese, plus salt and pepper to taste. Cook the sauce on low heat until slightly reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes. Add in the truffle oil, chopped artichoke pieces, plus salt and pepper to taste. Hold the sauce on very low heat.

Fill a medium sized saucepan (use a large if doubling recipe,) with about 1 ½ inches of water and the white distilled vinegar and bring to a low boil. Break each egg into a small ramekin or cup, then carefully slide each egg into the simmering water. Repeat for each egg. Poach the eggs until the whites are set but the yolks are very soft.

To assemble, drain artichoke bottoms and top with a poached egg. Top with the mushroom sauce, season with salt and pepper, garnish with chopped parsley and serve immediately.