Avgolemono

A disappointing start to the day. There were two big lottery jackpots over the weekend and I didn't win either of them. I'm not greedy - I would have been happy with just one. The good news is that no one else did either. If the next picture you see of me is cliff-diving in Acapulco, you'll know what has happened.

Here is a tip: you should always be deeply suspicious of people who don't like soup.

With that in mind, I made avgolemono tonight. Avgolemono is Greek for eggs and lemons and you can use it as a delicious sauce, or in this case, soup.

I have adapted the recipe over the years to suit my tastes so I suspect it is in no way authentic.

First, I got a whole chicken and cut out the back, separated the breast and thighs and skinned them, while at the same time removing as much fat as I could. I browned all the bits in a large saucepan for about five minutes, then poured off all the fat. Don't get it too brown as it will end up the wrong tasting broth. You want something fairly light. I got out almost a whole cup of fat that doesn't belong in this kind of soup. Keep the fat though.

There is still some left in the bottom though, and to that I added two chopped carrots, two chopped celery stalks and two large shallots as I had forgotten to buy onions. Onions is something I either have a month's supply of, or none at all.

Once that is all nicely softened, I added hot water, scraping up the brown bits, and then the uncooked chicken. On top of that, add enough water to cover, then a couple of bay leaves, two or three whole cloves and then simmer for about 30 minutes.

At that point, takeout the chicken and set aside. Now is a good time to turn on the rice cooker. You can cook it in the broth, but I prefer it separate. I like to add about a tablespoon of the chicken fat to the rice just for a bit of extra flavour.

About fifteen minutes later your broth is done, so strain it into another pot to get all the bits out.

Now ... in a large metal bowl, add three egg yolks to the juice of one whole lemon. Then dribble the hot stock in whisking all the time. You will do this for at least four or five cups or until the egg/lemon is almost as hot as the soup. Then you can slowly stir this mixture back into the soup and you are almost done. You'll want to taste it now and add salt at this point if necessary. Don't boil it again as it will all separate and look just weird.

Keep it on a low heat while you shred the chicken and put into a serving bowl.

To eat, ladle the soup into a bowl, add rice and chicken. I always have some extra lemon on the side, black pepper and chopped parsley.

If all goes well, it should look something like this.

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