If She Could Eat Anything…

If you could eat anything, I asked her, what would it be?  I have the best kid in the whole world! Don’t you?  Mine loves food, and has always been an intrepid eater, but it’s been a while since I checked in with her to see what she’s really into.  The other night we were driving home slowly in the snow, and we were both hungry; it was late and we hadn’t had dinner yet so the conversation turned to what we’d eat if we could have anything. A last meal sort of conversation, but a little less grisly.

My daughter went first.  I was really curious about what she’d choose, and though some of it was expected, some of it was rather surprising. She’d start with a salad; a Caesar salad, with cucumbers, and olives, tomatoes, croutons, lots of cheese and a pickle on the side.  Her main course, salmon with avgolemono sauce, and rice with more cheese. She admitted to the irony that as much as she loves cheese, she doesn’t like cheesecake, so for dessert she’d like either Baked Alaska or crème brulée.  

Naturally I was impressed with this menu.  I was impressed with my daughter to have come up with a menu I don’t think many of her peers would have chosen, and impressed with myself for having influenced such a sophisticated and discerning kid.  I was surprised though by the choice of avgolemono sauce.  I know we’ve had it, and I know I’ve made it, but I have no idea how long ago that was. I felt a little bad that I didn’t realize how much she liked it, and I could easily incorporate it into our menus more often.

We had it Sunday with salmon and rice, and salad.  Sorry, I wasn’t up to the project of baked Alaska.  I need my friend Erin to tackle that project!  Avgolemono is a versatile sauce that goes well on any green vegetable, and any type of fish.  The Greeks will put it on red meat too, using the stock of the beef or lamb they are cooking.  It may be the next thing I teach my daughter to make, since she likes it so much. If you can make a good variety of sauces well, you can cook your way through any meal! 

If you’re not familiar with it, avgolemono is a Greek egg-lemon sauce, similar to the traditional Greek avgolemono soup, usually made with orzo.  If you’ve only had it in a diner, it was probably thickened with cornstarch or flour, because though it is easy to make, it is difficult to hold.  because it is an egg sauce you need to be careful to cook it enough to thicken it, but not so much that you start to scramble the eggs. Of course if the eggs start to cook, you can strain it before serving.  To hold it you can use one of my tricks which will let you hold this or any delicate sauce hot for hours without risk of them breaking, or curdling.

Avgolemono Sauce

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Chicken Stock
• 2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 2 tablespoons Flour
• 2 Eggs
• Juice of 2 Lemons
• Salt and Pepper

Directions

Step 1

Heat stock, but do not boil. meanwhile melt butter and stir in flour to form a roux, add roux to hot stock and stir until mixture starts to thicken

Step 2

Whip eggs and lemon juice until frothy, add egg mixture to stock and stir until mixture is thick enough to coast a spoon. Do not let boil

Step 3

Strain to remove any egg solids that have formed