Eggs and lemon make an exquisite Greek sauce: avgolemono

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 16

Eggs and lemon make an exquisite Greek sauce: avgolemono

Everybody loves to eat fine food, but for those who also aim to cook it, an exquisite Greek sauce known as avgolemono holds the added attraction of simplicity. The list of ingredients is minimal: a little broth, egg (avgo) and lemon (lemone). Once this derivation is understood, the name becomes pn> nounceable. In Greece it is used with practically everything: vegetables, lamb, beef, chicken, fish, seafood. Stirred into a soup at the last moment, it can transform the thinnest stock.

The only restriction the Greeks seem to place on avgolemono is that it should not be used with any dish containing tomatoes. Having tries this myself, I can confirm that the two tastes clash badly.

A related but more questionable theory, quite prevalent in Greece, holds that tomato doen’t go with lemon either, which explains even better why they use green and tart tomatoes for salads.

Avgolemono basic recipe

Beat 2 eggs with a wire whisk (or failing that, a fork) then beat in the juice of either one or two lemons, depending on whether you want the final result to be rich and velvety, or rather more lemony. (At this point some cooks like to add a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with cold water, which makes for a thicker sauce.)

Continuing to beat furiously with your strong hand, dribble in about a third of a cup of hot (just below boiling) stock with the other. If you are using stock powder, allow only about a pinch to a third of a cup of hot water. Use some of the cooking liquid if you are making a soup or casserole.

If the sauce is to be incorporated into a soup or casserole, stir it in

now, keeping the pot just below boiling point. When the dish thickens, remove at once from the heat and serve.

If, however, the avgolemono is to be used as a sauce in its own right, transfer the mixture to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and start beating with a wire whisk over a medium high heat. When it reaches the required heat the sauce will thicken in a matter of seconds, so step up the beating during this crucial time. Remove from the heat when it starts to bubble, but do not allow to boil; like any egg-based sauce it will go lumpy if it is allowed to boil unattended. Avgolemono can be

made in a good processor or blender, but the results lack the delightful foamy texture which can only be achieved with a whisk. Avgolemono soup Make about 6 cups of stock from the raw materials of your choice — vegetables, chicken, beef, lamb, or fish. Strain and boil 3 tablespoons rice in the stock until cooked, then make and add avgolemono according to the basic recipe. Invariably, when I

[Food & Fable

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David Burton

ordered this soup at the more tourist-oriented restaurants in Greece, it needed the extra lemon which accompanied it on a separate plate. Apparently Greek chefs feel some foreigners can’t handle the lemony tang of the real thing, and this is their way of circumventing the problem! Avgolemono is also added to the traditional Greek soup known as mayeritsa, which breaks the Lenten fast after the midnight church service on Easter Saturday. It is a sort of liquid haggis, made from all the unmentionables (head, intestines, heart, liver, lungs) of the lamb which is spit-roasted the next morning, Easter Sunday. As a sauce, avgolemono, is poured over meatballs (youvarlakia), or stuffed vine leaves (dolmathes) and it is also stirred into chicken, squash and pea casserole (Kota avgolemono) and lamb and celery caserole (Ami me selino). So much for the traditional uses. I have also found that mixed with a little sour cream, avgolemono is excellent as a cold sauce for fish:

Chilled fish with a vgolemono-sour cream dressing

Simmer a kilo of a good poaching fish such as groper in a cup of water and y 2 cup dry white wine, along with 2 bay leaves, and a few pepper-

corns, for about 10 minutes or until cooked. Remove the fish and chill. Strain off the cooking liquid, boil to reduce to y 3 cup, and use it to make avgolemono according to the basic recipe. Mix in y 2 cup sour cream at the end and chill the dressing. Spoon over the fish and garnish with black olives, slices of cucumber, and, for a luxurious version, some cooked prawns or diced rock lobster.

Finally, here is an EastWest combination I dreamed up recently, bound to outrage both Greek and Japanese chefs even though it works well. It is intended as the main dish of a vegetarian meal: Zucchini and tofu with avgolemonoyoghurt sauce

Dice a large onion, crush 2 cloves garlic and fry these in 2 tablespoons olive oil in a saucepan for several minutes, while you wash and slice 800 g zucchini in two down the middle. Add zucchini to the saucepan along with % cup water or stock, y 4 cup dry white wine or water, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 teaspoon chopped mint leaves. Boil, covered, for 4 or 5 minutes until the zucchini turns bright green.

Remove the zucchini while it is still crunchy and then reduce the cooking liquid to about y 2 cup by boiling it vigorously, uncovered.

Meanwhile, pat dry 2 cakes tofu with absorbent paper, cut into cubes and deep-fry in hot oil. Drain on absorbent paper and add to the zucchini.

Make avgolemono according to the basic recipe, using the reduced cooking liquid as the stock, and stir in % cup plain yoghurt (kept at room temperature) at the end. Pour over the zucchini and tofu and sprinkle over chopped parsley if desired.