March 13, 2005
Monterey Avgolemono
Here's what I finally came up with last night. I tweaked a couple of recipes to come up with the following:
4 cups chicken stock
5 eggs
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 heavy cream
Bring the stock to a boil. While it's heating up, break eggs into a large bowl and whisk the living daylights out of them, then add lemon juice and blend. After the stock comes to a boil, turn the temp down to simmer. Slowly ladle half the stock into the eggs to temper them, whisking the entire time. Now, pour the egg/stock mixture back into the remaining stock -- you got it -- whisking the entire time. Now, add the cream, still whisking. Switch to a spoon, and stirring constantly, wait for the soup to thicken and heat through -- but don't let it boil! Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Notes: I used turkey stock because that's what I had, but you're supposed to use chicken. Most recipes use rice, but Nin doesn't like rice, and I remembered having it once without, so.... Most don't use cream, but I like it, and since I omitted the rice, I wanted to give it a bit of body. I didn't add any extra salt, since the stock was salty enough. This is quite lemony, so you may want to reduce the lemon to a 1/4 cup if tart isn't your thing. Try and use fresh juice, since it really does make a difference. If you do use the bottled kind, you may want to half the amount of juice to start with and see how it tastes. Rue tells me this doesn't freeze well, so be warned.
