Wow! How nice to have a bunch of comments asking for the recipe post that was preëmpted by the weather. I was reminded to post it today because I used the leftover sauce for a dinner party this weekend. In the photo above you’ll see the key ingredients to “Greek up” just about anything that doesn’t move fast enough.
The meatloaf is easy enough. Combine one pound of ground beef or lamb with one pound of ground veal. In a gallon ziplock bag mix: 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil, the juice of one to two lemons, the leaves from three sprigs of fresh oregano, two pressed garlic cloves, half a chopped large onion, salt, pepper, and a stiff shot of Ouzo. Add the meat mix, toss and squish it around in the bag and marinate overnight. That’s it. In retrospect I should have added an egg, some crushed tomatoes and some crushed pita chips to the mixture (to help absorb some of the fat during cooking which would have kept the meatloaf moister.) Pack it all into a loaf pan, drizzle with olive oil and either cook in a larger pan in which you have added enough water to come 1/3 up the sides of your loaf pan or just drop the loaf pan into a pre-heated 350ºF oven until your cooking thermometer registers an internal temperature of 140ºF for rare, 160ºF for medium rare.
The good news is that, although the meatloaf was very dry, I made avgolemono sauce to accompany it. It saved the day. Avgolemono is “egg-lemon” sauce and was probably some sort of precursor to mayonnaise back in the old country.
Melt two tablespoons of butter.
Add two tablespoons of flour to it and whisk to make a roux.
In a sauce pan over medium heat warm up one cup of lamb or chicken stock.
In a bowl whisk together until frothy:
The juice of one lemon.
Two eggs.
A splash of water.
Add the roux to the stock and whisk to combine. Add the lemon-egg mixture to the sauce and continue to whisk until thick. Do not boil the sauce.
You can use the avgolemeno warm or at room temperature. I used it warm over the meatloaf and this past weekend, I used it at room temperature over some blanched asparagus.
Chris, Mmmmm, baked chicken is wonderful in this sauce, have had it in Greece many times!
Karena
Art by Karena
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Easy and elegant but MISSPELLED! You, bless you, are a stickler for the right tie, fine fabrics, and way of living which I admire greatly–but a truly elegant man is a good speller–or has a good editor! Avgolemono. . . .
Oh Ms. Pheneger, I have miles to go before I am truly elegant. Working without an editor has its disadvantages. Bonus points for spelling it in Greek!
yum- one of my faves.
You put the authority in authentic Greeking.