A beautiful day of family, friends and food to celebrate Rahbi as he prepares to follow his dream and move to NYC. The delicious Greek food was catered by Kouzina.
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A big “mwah” and thank you to all who attended. It was a magical day. xxxoooo
Last Sunday was Greek Easter and as always my family gathered for the day and dinner. The weather was beautiful. We grilled our leg of lamb outside. The boys ran around, played in the yard on the green grass and on my green swing. They were having too much fun for a serious photo.
I added one new recipe to my menu this Easter. I made Greek Easter soup, Magiritsa. This recipe takes me back to fond memories of my Yiayia Yeoryia (Georgia). She made it every Easter with the offal (organ meat) from the spring lamb. May her memory be eternal.
Per Wikipedia: “Magiritsa is a Greek soup made from lamb offal, associated with the Easter tradition of the Greek Orthodox Church. Accordingly, Greek-Americans and Greek-Canadians sometimes call it “Easter soup”. Don’t be confused by the different phonetic spellings of magiritsa/magheritsa. If you Google either you’ll get at least 1,000 results.
I boiled lamb trimmings from the Eastern Market butcher shop where we purchased our leg of lamb. I added carrots, leeks, salt, peppercorns and a bouquet garni of parsley stems. I did this on Saturday, the day before Easter. After the mixture came to a rigorous boil and simmered, I drained the broth and refrigerated it.
On Sunday morning I skimmed off all the fat that had floated to the top. Refrigeration provides an easy way to remove the fat from broths.
Then on Sunday before dinner, I brought the broth back to a boil, added orzo and simmered for 9 minutes. My daughter-in-law, Erin and I added the avgolemono. Tempering eggs is so much easier with extra hands. We used an immersion blender for the eggs and for tempering them with the broth.
I garnished the magiritsa soup with parsley (instead of the traditional dill). My entire family loved it.
Thank you Peter for your easy and modern recipe. I know Yiayia Yeoryia was looking down at us and was pleased. Christos Anesti!
Neo-Magiritsa soup, an updated recipe of a traditional Greek soup by Peter Minaki of Kalofagas. Magiritsa is a traditional Greek soup made for Orthodox Easter.
Author: Peter Minaki
Recipe type: Soup
Cuisine: Greek
Serves: 10
Ingredients
BROTH
1½ kg. of lamb shoulder [or other cuts like shank, ribs, necks]
Enough water to cover the meat
¼ cup olive oil
12 scallions, sliced [I used 2 leeks]
½ bunch finely chopped dill
½ cup finely chopped parsley
½ cup Arborio rice [I used Orzo]
salt and pepper to taste [I added a bouquet garni, a bundle of herbs tied together with cheese cloth]
AVGOLEMONO
2 eggs
2 lemons
garnish ½ fresh chopped dill [I used parsley]
lemon wedge
Instructions
BROTH - Rinse your lamb pieces and place in a large pot
Cover with enough water to just cover the meat
Add about Tbsp. of sea salt
Cover and bring to a boil then lower and simmer for about 2½ hours or until the meat falls off the bone
Remove from the heat, adjust seasoning if necessary
Remove meat and pull off the bone, remove any fat and cartilage
Chop the meat into bite-sized pieces
Add the hot stock, meat, rice, parsley, dill and bring up to a boil then lower to medium and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the rice is cooked [This is where I added the leeks, carrots, and bouquet garni]
AVGOLEMONO - Crack your eggs in a bowl and add the juice of 2 lemons and whisk until just frothy
Once the rice is cooked in the soup, remove from the heat and slowly add hot stock into your bowl of egg and lemon while whisking
While whisking add about 4-5 more ladles to temper and the heat of the egg/lemon mixture
Pour the tempered egg/lemon mixture back into the soup pot, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and add the remaining ½ cup fresh dill
Kreatopita – meat pie [or more correctly, Kreatoprasopita – meat and leek pie] is what my Mother made to celebrate the New Year. She would hide a coin in one of the corners of the crust for one of her 4 children. The child that chose the piece with the coin was said to have good luck in the coming New Year.
Ingredients: ground beef [or lamb], leeks, eggs, butter and phyllo…
…salt, pepper, oregano and basil.
Sauté the washed and finely cut leeks in butter. Melt butter for phyllo.
In a separate pan, brown the ground meat. Season with salt, pepper, oregano and basil. Set aside to cool.
Sauté leeks until wilted and golden. Set aside to cool.
While leeks and meat are cooling, place 10 individually buttered phyllo pastry sheets on the bottom of a baking pan. Butter each one of the phyllo sheets with a pastry brush. Be gentle, but know that the phyllo is forgiving. Similar to papier-mâché or wallpaper. Have courage! Work fast. Don’t let it dry out. Kontos phyllo comes in different thickness:
#4 = thin and pliable – ideal for panned pastries and small hors d’oeuvres
#5 = thin and crispy – for wrapped triangles or baklava
#7 = thicker but flexible – for large entrées or desserts
#10 = thickest – more rustic for country style pies and spanakopita
Combine cooled leeks and ground meat with eggs. Pour meat, leek and egg mixture into the phyllo.
Top with 10 individually buttered phyllo pastry sheets. Remember to score/cut the phyllo into desired pieces with a sharp knife before baking [because I forgot]. Bake at 350 degree F for 30 minutes.
Maybe a bit too flaky and broken apart on top [because I didn’t score it] but still delicious!
Every year I make Christmas Koulouria with my grandsons, Maxwell and Benjamin, just like I did with my son, Robert when he was growing up. It’s our holiday tradition. The only thing different with this year’s recipe [or I should say, last year’s] is that we used unbleached flour, experimented with a chocolate ganache filling and some sugar sprinkles. Here’s a video of the fun and festivities. [We used our 15 year old Canon DV camcorder, so you might see a quick battery icon, time stamp and ‘play’ flash by… try to ignore it. It’s vintage technology but it still works!]
Every year I make Christmas cookies with my grandsons, Maxwell and Benjamin, just like I did with my son, Robert, when he was a boy. This is my Mom's recipe for Greek butter cookies.
Author: Kitoula and her Mom - Matina Yanoulis Dallas
Recipe type: sweet / baking
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients
1 pound unsalted butter
1½ cup sugar
¼ cup whipping cream
3 eggs
2 tsp. vegetable oil
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
Zest of one orange or 2 tsp. orange extract
4 to 5 cups of all purpose flour
Small can of sesame seeds
Instructions
Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs.
Mix well.
Add in cream, vanilla, oil and zest.
In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the dry ingredients.
Slowly add dry ingredients to form a firm but pliable dough.
Using about a tsp of dough, roll with hands on counter surface in long ropes, then fold in half and twist into a braid like cookie.
Place on cookie sheet.
Brush tops of cookies with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
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