[Sca-cooks] Avgolemono, strange leftovers, and Winter comfort food...

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

On Dec 4, 2005, at 9:25 AM, <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
<kingstaste at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> I started with 2 quarts of homemade turkey stock and added another
> quart of water.  To this I added a little over one cup of medium grain
> organic brown rice and 2 large cloves of minced organic garlic.  I diced
up some
> Bell and Evans chicken breast meat and added it to the pot.  I let this
> simmer a while as I prepared the other ingredients.  I made a chiffonade
of
> spinach (organic spinach from my CSA), and finely diced an organic fennel
> bulb that I found on the discount rack at Sevananda (my local food co-op).
I
> also chopped some fennel fronds.  I juiced 4 organic lemons and set all
> of this aside while my girlfriend and I sat and chatted and drank a nice
> Australian Merlot :)

Yes, but was it organic ;-) ?

I'm intrigued by this because you seem to have combined two or more
recognizable but different soup traditions, most noticeably
stracciatella (which sometimes has spinach but always seems to have
eggs, presumably for their wedding/fertility symbolism), and
avgolemno. Not having tried it, I'm not sure how well it would work,
but we now have some evidence that it does ;-).
<snip>
Adamantius


I actually looked at a couple of Greek cookbooks before I started, and read
the technique for avgolemono*, but did not follow it.  I was pleased when
the egg stayed very much in emulsion in the soup, I was expecting larger
curds such as one finds in egg drop soup - and I dropped the eggs through
the tines of a fork as I added them.  I didn't have it at a rolling boil,
which no doubt had a lot to do with it.  What can I say, not what I intended
but really quite good.  Not sure of stracciatella, unless I seem to recall
some discussion here about it a couple of years back?
Anyway, it was more a matter of what I had on hand, and what my gut instinct
was.  We needed the lemon.  We've been being Santa and Mrs. for a week now,
and the cold wet weather was straining our voices.  I had the spinach.  He
didn't want gas-producing foods, and had requested soup and a green salad.
(He didn't get the salad - but the greens in the soup were good.)  I had
found the fennel earlier in the day.  I knew that wasn't part of any of the
traditional soups, but it felt like a good complimentary flavor.  So it all
came together in the soup pot as opposed to the recipe book.  That happens a
lot around here ;)

And no, the wine wasn't organic, more's the pity.  I have recently
discovered organic nitrite-free bacon, and it is so delicious!  One of my
students did his paper on the taste difference between organic and
conventional produce.  He states that he went into it thinking he would find
no difference, and during his taste trials he found that across the board
the organics were better tasting.  So, at least one 17-year old is a
convert...

Your fusion curry sounds pretty tasty, Master A.  People always think that I
have interesting leftovers (and I do - there is a piece of butterflied
grouper stuffed with sun-dried tomato tapanade and wrapped in prosciutto on
the top shelf left-over from a class, curried mashed green bananas left over
from last week's dinner, and cucumers all leftover in my fridge at this
moment), but yours are pretty out-there too!

Christianna

* Ok, Stefan - just for you:

Avgolemono Soup
From: "Classic Greek Cooking" by Daphne Metaxas, Nitty Gritty Productions,
1974
	1 can (46oz) chicken broth
	1 cup orzo macaroni or 1/2 cup long-grain rice
	salt and pepper to taste
	2 eggs
	juice of 2 lemons

Bring broth to a boil.  Stir in orzo, salt and pepper.  Bring to a second
boil.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until orzo is tender (20 minutes
for rice).  Remove from heat.  Separate eggs.  Beat whites until peaks form.
Add yolks.  Beat until blended.  Add lemon.  Stir only until barely mixed.
Gently stir two ladlefuls of soup into egg mixture.  Pour this combined
mixture back into the soup pot.  Stir gently.  Ladle into soupbowls.  Serve
immediately, before the froth subsides.  Serve before a main course or with
crusty bread, cheese and a salad.