Friday 29 June 2012

A full house...

The past week, I had my sister and my parents staying over for the first time.  It was a full house indeed!  After one day, I think my dad realized that he didn't miss living under the same roof as me (he thinks that I have too much energy).  What my dad missed the most was not my presence but rather the fact of not having access to "Antenna" and his greek tv shows.  I, on the contrary, realized that I miss my mom and dad very much even though they both got on my nerves!  I especially noticed that the years have caught up with them.  I was happy to have them around so I can take care of them, do their laundry, prepare their meals...  I felt like a proud daughter for those three days.  It is interesting how the roles have reversed!

For this post I decided to share a greek recipe that my parents love.  Since they were over, I suggested preparing a meal that they hadn't had in a while.  They chose: "Kotopoulo kokkinisto me pilafi avgolemono".


 
{Kotopoulo kokkinisto pilafi avgolemono} Chicken pilaf with avgolemono sauce
(inspired by Vefa Alexiadou's recipe)

1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 kilo chicken (in servings)
1 large onion diced
1 carrot diced
1 celery stem diced
1 can San Marzano Tomatoes Pastene (squeeze the tomatoes with your hands)
2 basil leaves
a pinch of ground cinnamon
a pinch of ground clove
salt, pepper
3/4 cup calrose rice (or 1 cup: depends on the amount of liquid)

Avgolemono sauce: 2 eggs (seperate eggwhites from eggyolk), 1 or 2 lemons (juice), broth from the pilaf

Pour olive oil in a large pot on medium-high.  Add the chicken and sautee.  Add onion, carrot and celery and continue sauteing until soften.  Add tomatoes, basil, spices and add water until it covers the chicken.  Let it simmer on medium heat until chicken is tender.
Once chicken is cooked, remove from pot.  If enough liquid remains, I puree the veggies and this will thicken the sauce.  Then, I add 3 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and add rice.  Once the rice is cooked, remove the pot from the heat. 
In a bowl beat the eggwhites until it forms peaks.  Add eggyolks and lemon juice and beat gently.  Slowly add broth/rice in the egg-lemon mixture while continuously beating (we don't want to cook the egg!)  When the egg mixture is warm enough, add everything back into the pot and continue mixing.  Should almost have the consistency of a risotto.  Serve warm.