Avgolemono

A soup thickened with egg and lemon alone, which curdles the instant it boils and is therefore never allowed to.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken stock.

Ingredients

• 1.5 litres well-flavoured chicken stock
• 150 g short-grain rice
• 3 eggs
• 2 lemons, juiced, about 100 ml
• 200 g cooked chicken, shredded, optional
• salt and white pepper

Method

1. IT CURDLES THE INSTANT IT BOILS AND IS THEREFORE NEVER ALLOWED TO. Egg sets at around 70C; a soup at a simmer is at 95C and above. Tip beaten egg into that and it scrambles on contact into threads in a thin broth, and there is no step afterwards that reverses it. Everything below exists to get the egg up to temperature slowly and then keep the pan off the heat.
2. THE TEMPERING IS DONE WITH A LADLE AND TAKES THREE MINUTES, not thirty seconds. Hot stock goes INTO the egg, a little at a time, whisking -- never egg into the stock. By the end the bowl should be warm to the back of the hand, and only then does it go into the pan.
3. Stock brought to a simmer and the rice cooked in it, 15 minutes, until soft. Seasoned.
4. HEAT OFF. The pan left to stand 3 minutes and stop bubbling entirely. If the surface still moves it is too hot.
5. Eggs whisked in a large bowl until pale and frothy, about 2 minutes. Then the lemon juice whisked in a little at a time.
6. Now the tempering. A ladleful of the hot stock poured into the egg IN A THIN STREAM while whisking hard. Then another. Then another, five or six in all, by which point the bowl holds nearly a litre and is pleasantly warm rather than hot.
7. The warmed mixture poured back into the pan, stirring as it goes.
8. THE PAN GOES BACK ON THE LOWEST HEAT YOU HAVE, if at all, and is stirred constantly for 2 minutes while it thickens to the consistency of single cream. If your hob will not go low enough, leave it off entirely -- the residual heat is usually sufficient.
9. A thermometer, if you have one, should not pass 75C. The surface must never show a bubble.
10. Chicken folded through if using. Tasted for lemon, which should be clearly present rather than a hint.
11. Served at once. It does not reheat: a second heating takes it past the point the first one avoided.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes