Posted by Blake Royer, February 8, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Apparently, people are clamoring for Avgolemono, a lemony Greek chicken soup, judging from the 62 reviews for the Epicurious recipe available online, which has a respectable three-fork rating. Personally, I don't have memories of slurping this soup down in some Greek diner on my corner, but many do, especially in Chicago, and they all want a good recipe. The only problem is that actually reading these abundant reviews (a post on Too Many Chefs lead me there) reveals a shake-up: the Epicurious recipe is disparaged as inauthentic. Hardly anyone likes it. Instead, a mysterious cook known only as "Boston, MA" who left a comment in 2002, is repeatedly praised as the provider of an "OUTSTANDING," "SUPER" and "MUCH better" recipe than the original—and many people provide high ratings for her recipe instead. It's just a quick paragraph and comes from the author's experience watching her Yia Yia (grandmother) make it when she was a child. It involves 5 ingredients, including pepper.
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Posted by The Gurgling Cod, November 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Sunday Night Soups, where each week The Gurgling Cod shows up to offer a soup appropriate to the week's Sunday Night Football game on NBC.
This week’s Sunday night contest between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers may well be the single most bitter matchup in NFL history. It is not a bitter rivalry, just two teams with good reason to be bitter individually.
To review: The visiting Colts lost the most hyped game of the year when they were unable, despite the help of a home crowd and kindly officials, to stave off a late comeback that saw the Patriots emerge victorious. On the other side of the line, the Chargers lost to a middling Vikings team, despite scoring on the longest play in NFL history, largely because they surrendered a record- breaking number of rushing yards to a rookie, Adrian Peterson, who ran for roughly 1.3 furlongs through a cooperative Charger defense. So expect a gametime atmosphere not unlike the end of Stalingrad, with a possible cameo by death from The Seventh Seal.
Under the circumstances, soup seems almost irrelevant, as the training table for both squads likely features steaming bowls of bile. But who wants to eat that? Instead, something with a hint of sourness but with enough reassuring substance to remind you that life is worth living. Something restorative, yet comforting. In other words, Greek Egg and Lemon Soup.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, July 27, 2007 at 4:00 PM
There are simple soups, and then there is this guy. I pulled this one from the Silver Palate Cookbook, an old '80s standby. It's a solid collection, and one that I've flipped through often. But I was struck when I came across this little ditty, a soup that looked much too simple to possibly be any good. I decided to put it to the test.
The most difficult part of the recipe is tempering the egg so it doesn't curdle. Otherwise, it's not much different from boiling rice and tossing in some lemon. But somehow, this soup tastes much more luscious and creamy than it has any right to be. They say it tastes good both hot and cold, but I'll vote strongly for the former.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, July 18, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Making a great salad has never really been a question of time. Most can be mixed together in a matter of minutes, and this one is no different. What is different about this little beast, beyond the cute presentation, is how it turns the normal Greek salad on its head by removing ingredients instead adding them. It’s simply romaine, green onions, dill, lemon, oil, and salt. I added a little feta just to be horribly difficult, but that’s really all you need.
I found this recipe in Jim Botsacos’s The New Greek Cuisine
, a book I wish I had the courage to tackle more often. (Most of his recipes look fantastic, if a tad complex). It’s only natural that I’d drift to the one that can be whipped up in less than five minutes.
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