Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Baghdadi Yogurt Dip

Recipe Source: al-Baghdadi, Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. al-Karim.  A Baghdad Cookery Book.  Charles Parry, trans.  Prospect Books, Totnes 2005 p. 88.

I have two copies of A Baghdad Cookery Book.  One is translated by A. J. Arberry.  It came out, I believe, sometime in the 1930s and was later included in a much larger volume entitled Medieval Arab Cookery.  The other was published as its own volume and was cited above.  This was the first book of medieval recipes I ever owned.  It has, unfortunately, been lost somewhere in the recesses of my house for quite some time.  Recently the house decided to cough up the book.  I don't know why.  It was just suddenly on the shelf again.  This happens sometimes, I don't know why.  Anyway, I prefer to work with this translation rather than the other.  I don't feel that I'm qualified to comment on the quality or accuracy of the translations themselves, but the style of English in the Perry translation is much easier to work with.

Anyway, the book made its re-appearance in time for me to start work on our New Year's Eve celebration.  I wasn't necessarily setting out to make a medieval dish for the party, but I happened to be flipping through the book and saw the recipe and decided that it looked good. I like that about a lot of the recipes from the medieval Middle East.  I mean, medieval people had taste buds too, and food for the classes that left recipes didn't need to taste like dust.  But a lot of the medieval Middle Eastern recipes fit right in with modern tastes and preferences.  You can mix them right into a modern dinner or party and no one would ever know the difference.  Try this one at your Super Bowl party.

As is usually the case when I'm trying to re-create a medieval recipe I didn't make a lot of changes.  The original wanted mint.  My husband is allergic to mint so I left it out.  I substituted tarragon.  The two are nothing alike of course, but I really like tarragon and it at least has a similar strength to mint.

Baghdadi Yogurt Dip (serves 16; approx. $0.51/serving)

1 large leek, finely chopped

4 celery stalks, finely chopped, leaves separated

1 small bunch tarragon, finely chopped

1 large tub Greek yogurt

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Kosher salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

Equipment:

• Large bowl

1. Combine the leek, celery stalks, celery leaves, tarragon and yogurt in the large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle the salt, mustard and walnuts over the top.
4. Transfer to a serving vessel and serve.

Recipe: Rosemary and Garlic Mushrooms

I have to admit that I'm feeling a little guilty.  I hardly cooked with any mushrooms at all this past fall.  This is a crying shame.  I love mushrooms.  I love mushrooms in all sorts of things.  I haven't seen a mushroom dessert yet but I'm sure I'd love it on general principles.  I love them but I hardly used them at all.  This has left me feeling both vaguely deprived and certainly neglectful.  I know, deep in my heart of hearts, that I have somehow let the mushrooms down.  They, in their little fungal way, are aware that I have not cooked with them enough and they are deeply upset by this oversight.  Really.

Okay.  I'm not that crazy, whatever you may have heard.  I do feel kind of deprived, though, and so in late November and early December I went through a kind of mushroom overload.  I wanted to make up for lost time before we completely ran out of mushroom season altogether.  Yes, I know that by this time it's practically New Year's.  That's okay.  Sometimes it takes me a while.  I threw this together for a Sunday open house.  I forget what I originally planned to do with the mushrooms but I decided to serve them as a side dish instead.  I used butter, which I rarely do for savory dishes.  I used butter because butter goes incredibly well with mushrooms for some reason.  I used a little olive oil to kind of keep the butter from smoking up too quickly.  The rest was pretty simple.  Garlic is good.  Garlic goes well with everything and given the kinds of Horrible Creeping Cruds going around right now I think everyone could do with a little more garlic.  The rosemary just kind of popped into my head.  It's an herb I love, of course, but I'm not sure why I was craving it so much this particular weekend.

The results were very well received.  I would have been happier had there been more mushrooms but the fault is on me - after all, I did the shopping.  I used salted butter because I had quite a lot of it left over from an event.  If you decide to use unsalted, which is what I usually keep on hand, feel free to add a little kosher salt.  Or not.

Rosemary and Garlic Mushrooms (serves 6; approx. $0.64/serving)

1 10-oz package baby Bella mushrooms, halved or quartered (if the stems are very tough get rid of them, but otherwise go ahead and keep them.)

1/2 stick salted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons garlic paste

1/2 bunch rosemary, leaves only, chopped

Equipment:

• Wok

1. Melt the oil in the wok with the olive oil.
2. Add the garlic paste with about half the rosemary and saute about a minute.
3. Add the mushrooms.  Cook over medium-low heat until the mushrooms are softened and have given up some of their liquid.
4. Add the remaining rosemary.  Saute about a minute.
5. Serve.

Recipe: Quince Omelet

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  Silk Road Cooking.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 125

I love quinces.  I love the way they smell, and the way that my refrigerator smells when it is full of quinces.  They aren't the prettiest of fruits when raw, but when cooked they make the prettiest syrups and jams and jellies and whatever.  They are generally sour, however, so most quince recipes rely pretty heavily upon large quantities of sugar.  Now, I personally don't have much of a sweet tooth and frankly at my size I don't need even more empty calories.  I've therefore been trying to find some tasty savory recipes for quince, and in order to do that I've needed to look east.  (This is not difficult.)  When my in-laws joined us for dinner the night before Thanksgiving I wanted to serve them something a little unusual but still decent.  They specifically requested something "light."  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to make this tasty treat, which is more like a frittata than an omelet if you ask me.  (And you did.)

I made a few changes to the original as you might well expect.  I substituted a parsnip for the carrot because I loathe carrots.  I hadn't any raisins OR dates, so I substituted dried barberries.  I also lacked pistachios, so I increased the quantity of almonds.  I added some garlic.  My notes strongly suggest that I added some cayenne pepper and cumin.  The result was actually very well received!  My in-laws enjoyed the dish and my husband also took great delight in it despite the presence of eggs.  It would probably be just about as good cold as warm - I reheated it, having made it the day before.

Quince Omelet (serves 4; approx. $1.12/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound quinces, cored and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 onion, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 parsnip, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 cup dried barberries, plumped

1 ounce almonds, chopped and toasted

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Equipment:

• Large skillet

1. Heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat.
2. Add the quince, lime juice and onion.  Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the parsnip, barberries and nuts.  Cook about 1 minute, stirring.
4. Spread the mixture evenly in the skillet.  Cook until the juices have evaporate.
5. Add the eggs and spices.  Stir, cover and cook over low heat until the eggs have set.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Mushroom Soup

Recipe Source: Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food & Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 88

I love mushrooms.  I can't remember a time when I didn't love mushrooms.  When I was a kid they weren't exactly common on the table, although they weren't one of those "Does anyone actually eat this stuff?" vegetables.  They showed up on pizza - homemade pizza, which no one does better than my mother did.  Those mushrooms always came from a can, and even though I can get the exact same can she used I just can't make the same pizza.  Certainly no store-bought pizza measures up.  Anyway, as I got older I started to see more possibilities in mushrooms.  I would go to parties and there would be stuffed mushrooms, or maybe during one of my vegetarian phases I'd get served a mushroom sandwich.  Now it seems like I've neglected mushrooms to an absolutely awful extent.  The thing is, mushrooms are an incredibly healthy ingredient.  According to Power Foods they're a good source of B vitamins, fiber, protein and vitamin D.  Some have antiviral and antimicrobial properties.  Some have antioxidants.  Some contain enzymes that lower cholesterol.  Some fight certain cancers.  Some offer potassium.  With all the sudden official interest in trying to force healthy food down peoples' throats, why aren't mushrooms getting more attention?

Some folks are afraid of mushrooms, I know that much.  They're concerned that because there are some varieties of poisonous mushroom there isn't enough certainty that the ones in the store aren't poisonous.  I get that.  I don't feel that I have the knowledge to forage for my own mushrooms.  I've heard that in Europe you can just take your bag of foraged mushrooms over to the pharmacy and have them checked.  You can't do that here, and I don't think I'd feel particularly comfortable doing that anyway.  I'd be too concerned about the land in which they grew.  (One of my favorite state parks, for example, was a manufactory of nuclear materiel during World War II.  There are lots of pretty things growing there but I'm not eating any of them.)  Some other folks are just repulsed by the idea of eating a fungus.  I don't have a whole lot of patience for that thought process.  I mean, they eat honey, right?  We won't even get into chickens or pigs.  But a fungus bothers them?  Then there are the people who are actually allergic.  They shouldn't eat mushrooms.

Anyway, I don't fall into any of those categories.  I like mushrooms, I can easily buy them in the store, I am not allergic and I am not frightened.  I made this soup for a weeknight dinner.  I've been trying to lose weight and soups are supposed to be helpful in that regard.  I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be substantial enough to make us feel full.  I shouldn't have been; neither of us needed seconds.  I did make a few changes, most of which probably take this dish pretty far outside the realm of traditional Irish cooking and so I won't list this as Irish food whatever the starting recipe might have been.  I added some ginger paste and some garlic paste.  I added some serranos.  I increased the amount of wine.  I used water instead of chicken stock.  I probably used quite a few more mushrooms than the original called for but I went a little wild in the store.  Finally, I added some spices.  The result was a delicious soup that has is just as good reheated as it is fresh.

Mushroom Soup (serves 4; approx. $6.04/serving)

1 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 potatoes, chopped

6 ounces crimini mushrooms, chopped

3.5 ounces "chef's blend" sliced mixed mushrooms

3.5 ounces shiitake mushrooms

3.5 ounces maitake mushrooms

2 tablespoons ginger pase

2 tablespoons garlic paste

1 cup white wine

5 cups water

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

Equipment:

• Large saucepan with lid
• Immersion blender

1. Melt the butter in the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onion and potatoes.  Cover and sweat over low heat 5 - 10 minutes.  Really.
3. Add the mushrooms, garlic paste, ginger paste, white wine and water.  Bring to a boil.
4. Add the spices.  Cook 15 minutes.
5. Use the immersion blender to puree the mixture.
6. Transfer to a serving vessel and garnish with the cilantro.
7. Serve.

Recipe: Cranberry and Red Onion Relish

Recipe Source: Atkinson, Catherine with Christine France and Maggie Mayhew.  400 Sauces.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 394.

So I have a confession to make.  This one is downright shocking and may get me investigated for un-American activities or at least un-American tastes.  I like cranberries just fine.  They taste good.  I like them in stuffing, I like them in muffins, I like them juiced.  There is one format in which I do not care for cranberries.  That is the traditional cranberry sauce that is served every Thanksgiving.  I hate it.  I have always hated it.  I always will hate it.  I don't even know why I hate it so much.  Growing up it was always the canned variety that "graced" our table and I'm not entirely sure why, but I loathed it.  I've since tried other people's cranberry sauces - home-made and with ingredients that are recognizable - but it was always with the same result.  I hate cranberry sauce.

The thing is, cranberry sauce is traditional.  Rather, it's Traditional.  You can't have a Thanksgiving table without cranberry sauce.  It just isn't done.  When I go to other people's homes for Thanksgiving I can usually get away with just putting a little on my plate and then hiding it under the napkin when I'm finished.  I can't do that in my own home.  This year my husband and I hosted Thanksgiving.  I had to serve something.  I also just couldn't get away with buying a can of cranberry sauce and calling it done.  Besides, isn't it my job to operate out of my comfort zone?  I looked for a vaguely palatable cranberry sauce recipe.  This one seemed the most straightforward and so it's the one I went with.

I made a few changes.  I reduced the sugar involved and I substituted honey for brown sugar.  I just prefer honey.  I didn't have red wine vinegar - I don't know how that's possible but that's where we are - so I used champagne vinegar.  I had to omit the mustard seeds due to one of my guests' health.  Instead I substituted prepared mustard.  It is not the same thing.  It did, however, give the finished product a certain kick (I used horseradish mustard) and so I'm okay with it.

This was palatable.  It was a little unusual, a little more fun, and did not show the ridging from the can that the cranberry sauce of my youth did.  I still didn't like it.  It was still cranberry sauce.  My guests, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly okay with it.  Some of them were pretty eager to take it home with them and that's usually a good sign.

Cranberry and Red Onion Relish (serves 8; approx. $1.09/serving)

1 pound red onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 cup honey

1 pound fresh cranberries

1/2 cup champagne vinegar

1/2 cup red wine (plus a little for the cook if you're so inclined)

2 tablespoons horseradish mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons port

Equipment:

• Skillet
• Large saucepan with lid

1. Heat the oil in the skillet.
2. Add the onions.  Cook gently for 15 minutes or until softened.  Stir frequently to prevent burning.
3. Add 2 tablespoons honey.  Cook another 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, put the cranberries in the saucepan with the remaining honey, vinegar, wine, mustard and ginger.  Heat gently until the honey has dissolved.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover.
6. Simmer 15 minutes or until the berries have burst.
7. Stir in the onions.
8. Increase the heat a little and cook, uncovered another 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.
9. Stir in the port.
10. Serve at room temperature.

Recipe: Turnip and Potato Salad

Recipe Source: Power Foods.  Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 2010 p. 282

Well, I've gone and done it again.  For those of you who haven't been reading this blog for the past 4 years, I've developed something of an obsessive-compulsive disorder around vegetables.  I'm obsessed with having them on the table.  I can't be comfortable unless there are at least three dishes involving vegetables in some way.  In the case of this past Thanksgiving that compulsion led me to have more dishes on the table than there were diners in attendance.  This is before my friend added the delicious side dishes she brought with her.  (Mmmm.... chard.  And the absolute best bread pudding I've ever had.)  I only feel a little bad about that, though.  There were plenty of vegetables, everyone had something they could eat whatever their dietary restrictions and there were enough leftovers to throw another little dinner party the next night.

This was one recipe I made.  It is vegan.  It was easy enough to make ahead of time and was doubly convenient in that it did not require refrigeration.  I made some changes.  Unfortunately my daughter has absconded with my notes about those changes, so you're going to have to rely on my memory.  I used a Macomber turnip instead of a rutabaga because that's what I could get my hands on.  (Strange; I rarely have problems finding rutabaga in the colder months.)  I didn't use Dijon mustard.  I used a stoneground horseradish mustard instead.  I wanted to give this dish a little bit more kick than the original.  I omitted the oil to limit the fat, which pleased most of my guests, and I made up the volume with mustard.  I increased the quantity of celery as well, because celery is super healthy.

The results were decent.  The vegetables were steamed, so they retained most of their nutritional value.  They were not however overcooked, and may have even been a little underdone as they retained a great deal of their crunch.  This would make a great side dish for a traditional barbecue or for any kind of picnic you might experience over the spring.

Turnip and Potato Salad (serves 8; approx. $0.66/serving)

1 Macomber turnip, peeled and cut into 2" pieces

1 pound red fingerling potatoes, cut into pieces more or less the same size as the turnip.  Mostly this will be halved or maybe quartered.

2 tablespoons champagne vinegar

3 tablespoons stoneground horseradish mustard

Black pepper to taste

5 celery stalks, chopped

Equipment:

• Basket steamer and saucepan - a two-tiered basket steamer worked very well for me here
• Small bowl
• Whisk

1. Fill the saucepan with water and bring to a boil.
2. Put the turnip pieces in one basket of the two-tiered steamer.  Place on top of the saucepan, cover and steam 5 minutes.
3. Put the potato pieces into the second basket.  Remove the basket lid.  Place the second basket on top of the first.  Cover and continue to steam 15 minutes.
4. Transfer the steamed vegetables to your serving vessel.
5. Combine the vinegar, mustard and pepper in the small bowl.  Whisk to emulsify.
6. Pour the dressing over the steamed vegetables.  Toss well.
7. Add the chopped celery to the serving vessel and toss to combine.
8. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe: Turkey Meatballs in Quince-Rosewater Syrup

Recipe Source (partial): Mallos, Tess.  The Food of Morocco.  Murdoch Books, Millers Point, 2008 p. 104

So none of my recent recipes have satisfied my meatball craving.  I don't know why that should be, but whatever.  I'll just have to keep playing until I find what I'm looking for, or possibly just enjoy eating more meatballs.  I wanted a meatball dish that I could enjoy during the week.  I also wanted something with quinces.  You may recall that not too long ago I posted a recipe for quinces in a rosewater syrup.  That was in preparation for this recipe.  I figured I might as well combine the two and see what I came up with, and I'm very glad that I did.  You see, the turkey meatballs matched beautifully with the quince sauce, just beautifully.  Neither my husband nor I could get enough.  This dish was great.  It also reheated easily and well with the addition of about half a cup of water.

Turkey Meatballs in Quince-Rosewater Syrup (serves 4; approx. $1.36/serving)

1 pound ground turkey

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 cup water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 serving (aout 1/2 cup?) Quinces in Rosewater Syrup.  Make sure you get some of that syrup!

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Mini-prep mini food processor
• Large saute pan

1. Combine the turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, cardamom, salt and pepper in the mixing bowl.  Knead well to mix thoroughly.  Form into meatballs the approximate size of walnuts and set aside.
2. Combine the quinces with the onion and lemon juice in the mini-prep.  Puree.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
4. Add the meatballs and brown on all sides.
5. Add the quince puree and the water.  Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer until the meatballs are thoroughly cooked.
7. Eat.  Complain that there are not more.

Recipe: Pomegranate and Bucheron Salad

I love pomegranates.  I never tried one until I got to college.  I'd heard of them, of course, but only in myths.  Now they're an unmitigated favorite.  Maybe it's the mess that they make - mess-making is a real talent of mine.  Maybe it's the delightful flavor, which can't be compared to anything else in the world.  Maybe it's the beauty of the arils, jewel-like against any background.  Whatever.  Yes, pomegranates are very healthy.  They've been described as a superfood.  Frankly, I get frustrated when I see them marketed as a "health food," because I feel they're being short-changed.  Pomegranates are a delicious seasonal special treat that happens to be frighteningly good for you.

Right.  So on to this salad.  My notes say that there are three ingredients here: pomegranate, bucheron and angelica.  I'd found a somewhat different pomegranate recipe in one of Najmieh Batmanglij's books but I completely forgot to do anything like, you know, follow it or even refer to it.  I just threw the arils and the cheese into a bowl.  Then I opened the book and saw that her recipe called for angelica powder.  Ordinarily I would just omit that, since angelica powder is hard to find.  This time, though, I'd just found a new Mediterranean market earlier that week.  They had angelica.  Since they had it, I used it and I'm glad I did.  It gave the salad a little bit of a more rounded flavor.  If you can't find angelica just leave it out, there isn't an equivalent spice.  If you can't find bucheron - I only had it because I picked it up for an event and then never ate it - use feta.  The flavor and texture will be a little different but it will still work very well with pomegranate.

Pomegranate and Bucheron Salad (serves 8; approx. $1.33/serving)

2 pomegranates

1 round of Bucheron, crumbled

1 tablespoon angelica powder

Equipment:

• Large mixing bowl, preferably one that won't stain

1. Slice your pomegranates in half lengthwise and put them in the mixing bowl.  Fill the mixing bowl with water.
2. Use your hands to remove the arils from the peel and membranes.  The peel and membranes float; the arils sink.  When you've finished separating them, skim off anything that floats.
3. Drain the bowl.  Transfer the arils to a serving bowl.
4. Crumble the bucheron into the pomegranate.
5. Sprinkle the angelica over the top and toss very well to coat.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Medieval Fried Meatballs

Recipe Source: Anonymous.  The Treasure of Useful Advice for the Composition of a Varied Table.  Thirteenth century AD, probably Egyptian.  Published by Lilia Zaouali in Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, M. B. DeBevoise trans., University of California Press, Berkeley, 2007 p. 87

So, my recent experiment with meatballs in avgolemono did not cure my craving for meatballs.  I don't know why.  Maybe they're just comforting.  Things around here have been kind of insane the past few weeks, maybe I'm subconsciously seeking that kind of familiar comfort.  Maybe they're just good.  There's a reason we find meatball recipes coming from all over the world, after all.  Whatever it is, I made these a while ago for a Sunday dinner and they came out pretty well if I do say so myself.  This is a medieval recipe that comes to us from Egypt - well, probably Egypt.  It's a very simple recipe, calling for seven ingredients.  It's very easy to pull together and very easy to like - assuming that you like cilantro, that is.  You can try it as a cocktail party appetizer, or serve as a main course.

Medieval Fried Meatballs (serves 8; approx. $1.12/serving)

1 pound ground lamb

1 onion, ground

1 tablespoon ground pepper

Pinch kosher salt

2/3 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 egg

6 tablespoons olive oil

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Skillet
• Saucepan

1. Combine the meat, pepper, salt, cilantro, coriander and egg in the mixing bowl.  Knead until thoroughly combined.
2. Use your (clean) hands to roll pieces of meat into balls the approximate size of a walnut.  Set aside.
3. Fill the saucepan about halfway with water and bring to a boil.
4. Add the meatballs.  Work in batches if you have to.  Cook until the meatballs are about half-cooked, three or four minutes.  Drain.
5. Heat the oil in the skillet.
6. Working in batches if necessary, fry the meatballs in the oil until done to your liking.  Drain.
7. Serve.

Recipe: Meatballs in Avgolemono Sauce

Meatballs were a major component of my childhood.  They were always the same.  They were always pure beef - never a mix of meats - and always cooked in my grandmother's miraculous red sauce.  That sauce, whose recipe is a closely guarded secret, flavored the meatballs and was in turn flavored by them.  They were a special treat on Sunday afternoons - and sometimes, if I were especially good or had had an especially difficult week, I might find one on a plate while dinner was still being prepared, just for me.

These are not those meatballs.  I can't make those meatballs.  My grandmother's sauce recipe was a closely guarded secret.  I do have the recipe, but I can't make it anymore.  It was very heavy on pork products, which I am no longer able to consume.  I could make meatballs the same way and cook them in a different sauce, and I've done so but it just isn't the same.  It is far better to make other meatballs, meatballs that are unrelated to my grandmother's masterpieces.  That way I don't get angry at innocent lumps of meat.

And there are other meatball recipes out there.  You see them all over the Mediterranean from Greece all the way around to Morocco going by variants on the name kefte. Sometimes they're beef.  Sometimes they're lamb, or chicken, or even fish.  Sometimes they're even tofu, although I cannot recommend that course of action as a matter of principle.  (My old roommate did make a tasty dish involving tofu "meatballs" once, but it's still tofu masquerading as meat and I cannot recommend it.)  There are the Swedish meatballs (Viking meatballs according to some) that show up at cocktail parties.  There are some other Northern European type meatballs that seem to involve pork in some way; I avoid them and can't talk about them with any intelligence.  But there are lots of meatball recipes out there.

I decided on one recent Sunday that I wanted meatballs.  I threw them together.  Rather, I pulled together some ingredients and told my friend what to do with them, which worked out admirably.  Then I made the sauce.  I decided on an egg and lemon sauce - the Greek avgolemono - for a very simple reason: I'd zested two lemons for pie crusts and I needed to do something with them.  I'm actually quite fond of avgolemono, but I don't make it often because of the fat content.  It really isn't that bad, but the eggs turn some people (like my husband) off.  (Now that I think of it, I wonder how it would work over toast for breakfast....)

Anyway, these were delicious.  I only got 3.  I'd planned to go back for more, but do you know what my pesky husband did?  He cleared them from the table after everyone had taken some, then he put the leftovers in a container and hid it in the back of the fridge!  He ate them the next day.  It's a good thing he makes a good Martini or I'd be quite irate.

Meatballs in Avgolemono Sauce (serves 8; approx. $1.02/serving)

1 pound ground beef - I use a very lean beef, but follow your own tastes.  You're the one who has to eat it.

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon ground paprika

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups water

Juice of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Equipment:

• Mixing bowl
• Large saute pan
• Bowl
• Medium saucepan
• Whisk

1. Combine the beef, egg, breadcrumbs, paprika and seasoning in the mixing bowl.  Use your hands (clean, obviously) to thoroughly mix the ingredients.
2. Form the mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan.
4. Add the meatballs.  Fry on all sides until browned and thoroughly cooked.  Transfer to the serving vessel.
5. Heat the broth in the saucepan.
6. Combine the eggs and the lemon juice in a bowl.
7. Whisk in the cornstarch.
8. Whisk about a ladle full of the hot broth into the egg mixture, then slowly pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
9. Heat over gentle heat 1 - 2 minutes.
10. Pour over the meatballs and serve.