Elegant Stuffed Artichoke Hearts

These can be done a day ahead and held cold.

Cut the stems off the artichokes.

Now bend back each leaf until it breaks off.  Don't break the leaves off the base - you'd remove too much of the heart. The technique is to bend the leaves about one third of the way up from the bottom. They'll break, then pull them off and a bit of the dark green skin of the choke will come off with them too. 

When you get to the tender yellow inner leaves you can yank them off.

Use a sharp potato peeler to peel off any remaining green skin. The skin will cook up too tough to eat. 

As you finish each artichoke, rub the heart with lemon juice to keep it from turning black. 

Bring 2 inches of water to boil, add butter and the artichoke hearts. Cook until a fork easily pierces the heart bottom, about 30 minutes.

Remove from the water.

Use a spoon to remove the center leaves so the only the edible choke is left.

Place the mushroom bits into a cheese cloth. Twist the cheese cloth together and squeeze all the liquid out of the mushrooms.

Sauté the shallots in 2 tbs of olive oil.

When they are nicely browned, add the mushrooms and cook until soft. 

Mix Madera with flour and cream.  Add to the mixture and cook slightly until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Turn on the broiler.

If you chilled the prepared artichoke hearts, then bring a pot of water to a boil. Remove from heat and add the cold artichokes. They will be ready to use in 5 minutes.

On an oiled cookie sheet, place the artichoke hearts. Mound each with the filling mixture.

Sprinkle parmesian cheese on top and place under the broiler for 10 minutes or until the filling is well browned.