Contrary to the mild dish my mother cooked, I add green chilies or plenty of freshly ground pepper to my veal and artichoke avgolemono.
The veal & Artichoke dish is from my book. PHOTO by Anastasios Mentis.
Serves 4 (more…)
Meat & Poultry
Baked Scallion – Parsley Meatballs with Avgolemono Sauce
The tart egg and lemon sauce complements beautifully these sweet, light, and simple baked meatballs.
Serve with rice or bulgur pilaf.
You can also serve the meatballs and the sauce over tagliatelle or spaghetti, simply tossed with fruity olive oil after cooking the pasta al dente.
Instead of serving the sauce on the side, meatballs are sometimes cooked in a chicken or meat avgolemono soup. On this occasion some rice may be added to the meatball mixture, and they are called giouvarlakia.
Serves 4-6
Braised Lamb or Pork with Horta (Wild Greens), in Egg and Lemon Sauce
In the winter, this dish is also made with peeled and sliced celeriac (celery root), along with bunches of the leafy, dark green celery that is common in Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean. This fragrant celery can be found in Asian markets under the name kun choi or kin tsai, or sometimes, Chinese celery.
Serves 4 (more…)
Braised Meat with Artichokes (Aginares me Kreas)
The meat, cooked together with the artichokes, takes on a delicious sweetness that is complemented by the tartness of the lemon juice. In many parts of Greece the sauce is often thickened with egg, making it avgolemono (egg and lemon sauce). But I prefer this much lighter version of the dish, based on the recipe given to me by Claire Ksida, from Chios.
Claire and her husband, own the tiny Perleas hotel, which they created by restoring an old Genoan villa, beautifully situated among extensive orange and tangerine groves, in Kambos, just outside the island’s capital. Claire prepares the dish for her guests in the spring, with the fresh tender artichokes she grows in her garden. “I have plenty of artichokes so I freeze some because I like to be able to continue making the dish throughout the summer” she told me. (more…)