Greek egg and lemon soup (Avgolemono) recipe

Sometimes I hear about a unique combination of ingredients and am completely disgusted.  Other times it intrigues me to the point that I have to make the recipe.  I don't remember where I first heard about this classic Greek soup that combines egg and lemon, but it fell into the latter category.

Greek egg and lemon soup (Avgolemono) (adapted from "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman)
(Printable version)

4 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup brown rice, sorted and rinsed
2 eggs
juice of one lemon
1/8 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

Bring stock and rice to a boil in a medium saucepan, and then reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender (about 40 min).  In a small bowl, beat eggs with a hand mixer until they become foamy.  Then stir in lemon juice.  Add about half a cup of the stock and rice to the egg and lemon, while constantly stirring.  Remove the saucepan from the burner (this is critical!) and stir in the egg and lemon mixture.  Stir in salt, and garnish with pepper.  Serves 3.

I have to admit that the combination works.  It's not something that I could ever consume in large quantities because the lemon gives it an intense flavor, but I enjoyed a small bowl of it with dinner.  There wasn't much of an egg flavor, but they gave the soup a slight creaminess that was nice.  My research in the lab has not been going well at all lately, but at least my kitchen experiments work!!
Well, this is the last recipe from this month's cookbook of the month ("The Olive and the Caper").  It was fun to stray from the general-purpose books, but I didn't end up making as many things as I have in the past because I didn't want to burn myself out on Greek food.  There are many more recipes that I want to try, particularly the black-eyed pea salad that Candice recommended in the comments on my post about Greek shrimp and tomatoes.  Of the recipes that I tried out of the book, the shrimp and tomatoes was my favorite dish, and my parents seemed to enjoy the leftovers quite a bit (and are apparently planning to make this themselves).  I could eat that stuff every week.  I also really enjoyed the Plaki-style snapper and zucchini and this soup.  I made a summer vegetable soup from this book as well, which was good but rather simple and bland (though it was perfect while I was sick).  I didn't end up writing about it  because it didn't remind me at all of Greece.  Hey, you can't win them all.  Overall, I've enjoyed this book, but I'm sad that I couldn't try any of the phyllo recipes, so if you know a way to make it work with gluten-free flours, please let me know!!

Usually I decide on a cookbook for the next month long before the current month is over, but I have no idea what it will be for September.  I suppose I had better get to work!

Greek shrimp and tomatoes topped with feta recipe

While flipping through this month's cookbook of the month, one recipe made the "must make" list: classic shrimp and tomatoes baked with feta. There's something about perfectly-cooked shrimp that makes me excessively happy. For years, anytime I stepped foot in a seafood restaurant, there was a 99.9% chance that I would order something with shrimp. My selections vary a bit more nowadays, but sometimes I regret not sticking with my favorite ocean critter. I've been cooking more shrimp lately, ever since I discovered the Shrimp Farm Market, a shrimp farm just down the road from me. It's even easier for me to buy it now that they have a stand at my favorite farmers' market on Saturdays. With shrimp on hand and some leftover feta that needed to be used, this recipe became a reality.

Greek shrimp and tomatoes topped with feta (adapted from "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman)

(Printable version)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 Tbsp brandy

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp fresh dill

freshly ground black pepper

1 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

4 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic, and cook for a minute. Stir in tomatoes and continue to cook until they are tender (about 5 min). Add wine, brandy, tomato paste, dill, and pepper, and let cook until tomatoes are completely falling apart (about 10 min). Add the shrimp and stir just until they start to turn pink. Then top the shrimp and tomatoes with feta and keep over heat until feta begins to melt. Serve over rice. Serves 3.

This dish made my night. It definitely caused me to have flashbacks to the time I spent in Greece, even though I don't think that I had seafood while I was there (what was I thinking?). The tomatoes soaked up all of the beautiful flavors of the wine, dill, and garlic, and were the perfect compliment to the shrimp and feta. I was worried that the shrimp would become overcooked while the feta was melting, but they weren't chewy at all. I also love that it took almost no time to make. It was the star of a perfect summer meal!

Greek plaki-style snapper and zucchini recipe

I don't cook fish very often, even though I really enjoy it when I do. Perhaps it's because I feel odd eating fish in the middle of Michigan, after spending the first 17 years of my life within 60 miles of the ocean. More recently, I've neglected fish because it's hard to find sustainable options in the Lansing area (unless you're willing to shell out the big bucks). But as I was walking through Whole Foods in Ann Arbor last week trying to find the remaining gluten-free flours that do not exist in the Lansing area, I noticed that they had snapper on sale, and it looked amazing. I brought some home, not quite sure what it would become.

I had already decided to make this month's cookbook of the month "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman. As you might guess from the title, this book is filled with Greek recipes, as well as stories and histories of Greece and Greek food. My dad found this book for me for my birthday last year, and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. I just didn't feel right making Greek food in the winter, although this might be because I've only been to Greece in June, and remember sweating quite profusely. It was originally going to be the cookbook of the month for July, but given that I was just figuring out how to do the whole gluten-free thing, I thought I should wait a little while to start experimenting with a new cuisine. Plus, I really wanted to make phyllo dough from the book's recipe, and that was obviously out (and after some reading, it looks like it's virtually impossible to reconstruct with gluten-free flours).

But now I've stocked up my pantry, feel more comfortable making gluten-free substitutions, and am ready to try some of the non-phyllo recipes in this book. I was delighted to find a recipe that combined the snapper with zucchini and tomatoes that I had from the market.

Greek plaki-style snapper and zucchini (adapted from "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman)

(Printable version)

1 lb. skinned snapper filets (or other type of fish)

juice of 1/2 lemon

pinch of salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 leek, white and light-green parts thinly sliced and washed thoroughly

1 large zucchini, sliced thinly

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/4 tsp dried sage

1/2 cup white wine

3 egg yolks, whisked until frothy

juice of 1 large lemon

Season fish on both sides with juice of 1/2 lemon and salt, and let it sit while you prepare the other ingredients. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leek and cook for 2 min. Then stir in zucchini, tomatoes, sage, and wine. Saute until the zucchini is tender (6-8 min). Then put the fish into the skillet, covering it with some of the veggies. Cover the skillet and cook until the fish gets flaky (mine took 10 min, but it will depend on the type and thickness of fish). Remove the fish and veggies from the pan, leaving the sauce behind, and set aside. Mix the egg yolks and lemon together, and then whisk this into the sauce in the skillet. Let cook over low heat until sauce is thickened (about 5 min). Pour the sauce over the fish and veggies. Serves 4.

This was a really good way to cook fish - it came out perfectly flaky, but still very moist. The veggies were also very good, and the tomatoes melted into the sauce nicely. The only change that I would make next time is to slightly reduce the amount of lemon added to the pan sauce. I know it's supposed to be lemony (it is Greek, after all), but it slightly overpowered the other flavors. Overall, though, I really enjoyed it. The other nice thing is that this seems to reheat fabulously, unlike many fish recipes.

Bison burgers with spinach and queso fresco

(I forgot to take a picture after they were cooked... oops!)

There are some words and phrases that are commonly used in the midwest that I refuse to adopt. You will never hear me say 'pop,' for example. Sure, I understand that referring to every carbonated beverage as 'coke' isn't quite accurate (especially up here in Pepsi-land), but there are many other terms that better describe the product (like 'soda' or 'soft drink'). Otherwise I start singing about weasels, and that's just annoying. Then there are 'parking ramps' - those multi-level concrete structures that hold a ton of parked cars. While I have occasionally used this wording, I still picture a ski ramp in the middle of the street that you drive over and end up flying through the air (in the style of Evil Knievel). 'Parking garage' makes much more sense to me.

The word that confused me most at first, though, was 'barbecue.' When I think of barbecue, I picture pulled pork that falls apart and makes a complete mess but is the most fabulous thing you've ever tasted. Or perhaps ribs that are so tender that they fall off the bone right into your mouth, smothered with a delicious sauce of one style or another, depending on where you happen to be at the moment. And when I was invited to my first bbq in Michigan, this is precisely what I found. It was hosted by a friend from Tennessee who decided to throw a few pork shoulders and several racks of ribs on his smoker and cook them to death, meanwhile whipping up a huge vat of sauce. I was right at home. Soon thereafter friends started planning barbecue after barbecue, and I was very excited. After I heard some of the plans, though, my excitement turned to confusion... hot dogs and hamburgers don't belong at a barbecue. Sure, throw them on a grill and go to town, but that's completely different than a hunk of meat that has been cooked low and slow.

I went to these events and had a good time, but I struggled with the misnomer for a while. Every time that I would hear the word, part of me would instinctively get excited, and then I would have to bring myself back to reality. I do love that people are obsessed with grilling over the summer here (probably because it's only feasible for 3 months out of the year). When I'm lucky, we also throw some veggies on the grill because that's almost as good as real barbecue.

Now that it's been four years, I've finally come to terms with the fact that 'barbecue' doesn't mean barbecue here. But I was ecstatic to get an evite for a 'grilling party' for the 4th of July this year. This friend happens to be a native Michigander, and I am unbelievably happy that she knows her terms for outdoor meat cooking occasions.

As the grilling party approached, I remembered that I had a package of ground buffalo meat from TMZ Farm in Pinckney, MI that I picked up at the Ann Arbor Farmers' Market several months ago. I thought that this would be the perfect time to use it. I'm not one of those people who loves the taste of meat alone (at least not usually), but I think that it can blend well with many other flavors. Thus, I present the bison burger with spinach and queso fresco.

Bison burgers with spinach and queso fresco (adapted from Eating Well)

5 oz spinach

1 lb ground bison

2 oz queso fresco (or feta), crumbled

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp dried dill

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Cook spinach in a large pot of boiling water just until wilted (about 2 minutes). Drain spinach, let cool, and chop. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, mix together with hands just until blended, and form into 4 patties. Cook over medium-low heat on a grill or in a skillet until it's done to your liking (buffalo meat is extremely lean and can't take high temperatures). Serves 4.

These were the best burgers that I've had in a long time. The original recipe is for Greek burgers, but I substituted queso fresco for the feta because I had some leftover from the squash enchilada casserole. They still had a Greek vibe to them, but the queso fresco was more mellow than the feta would have been... and I think I liked it better that way. This is the first bison meat I've had from TMZ Farm, and it was amazing. I think that I've also seen it at the Lansing City Market, and I will likely be heading over there to see if I can get more. It has a more subtle flavor than most of the bison I've eaten before, and it didn't overpower the other ingredients. Perhaps I'll have to whip more of these up for future grilling parties... and maybe even a barbecue.