Norman Brackett: Traditional Greek Lamb Fricassée with Avgolemono

Traditional Greek Lamb Fricassée with Avgolemono – Marilena's Kitchen:

As a rule, Orthodox Easter doesn’t coincide with Western Easter. This 12 months they fall one week aside, which implies that my household shall be celebrating Easter twice! Despite the fact that the circumstances are totally different this 12 months, this coming Sunday we’ll nonetheless have a good time Orthodox Easter, the largest non secular vacation of the 12 months for Greeks (and different Orthodox Christians) all over the world.

Lamb dishes, of their many variations, are all the time current on the Greek Easter desk and actually all through the spring. The recipe I’m sharing with you in the present day is a standard Greek dish referred to as lamb fricassée with avgolemono and comes from our expensive buddy Jason, a wonderful prepare dinner. He gave me this recipe a couple of years again after I requested him to share favourite recipes. This dish can be one thing that my mother used to make after I was younger, so it introduced again many great reminiscences. I used to be so excited lastly to have a recipe for it as my mother, like many Greek moms, by no means wrote down detailed recipes–it was all from reminiscence!

Lamb fricassée with avgolemono (αρνάκι φρικασέ) is a Greek-style lamb braised with a lot of greens and completed with the standard egg-lemon (avgolemono) sauce. The dish makes use of components which might be rising presently of the 12 months, through the spring, and it’s surprisingly mild and very flavorful. Tender items of leg of lamb (bone-in or with out the bone) are braised slowly with candy leeks, delicate spring onions, and fragrant recent dill earlier than the dish is completed off with the tangy/creamy avgolemono sauce.

The numerous greens that make this dish scrumptious!

Among the many greens which might be a part of this dish are crispy lettuce hearts, a shock ingredient that imparts sweetness to the dish. If you happen to favor, nonetheless, you may also use spinach, mustard greens, or, any mixture of different spring greens. After the gradual braising of the lamb, it actually falls aside and the flavors of all of the greens all meld so properly. On the finish, a creamy avgolemono sauce brings the entire dish collectively.

What to Serve with Lamb Fricassee

Despite the fact that scrumptious by itself, I prefer to serve the lamb fricassée with some fluffy pilaf rice on the facet. You will have, after all, some hearty bread to sop up all of the scrumptious avgolemono sauce. I hope that you simply give this beautiful recipe a strive someday this spring; I do know that you’ll be stunned by the fragile, recent flavors on this conventional Greek lamp dish. It was an enormous hit with my household! Thanks very a lot, Jason, for the beautiful recipe!

Conventional Lamb Fricassée with Avgolemono Sauce

Whole time

1 hour 40 minutes

A stunning Spring dish with succulent lamb, tender greens and a creamy avgolemono sauce!

Creator: Marilena Leavitt

Recipe sort: Essential Course

Delicacies: Greek

Serves: 6

Elements

three lbs. of boneless leg of lamb
½ Further Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium leek, sliced
10 scallions, chopped
three stalks of celery, with their leaves, chopped
three cups rooster inventory
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 heads of lettuce, (Little Gem or Romaine), coarsely chopped
a bunch of recent dill, chopped
For the Avgolemono Sauce:
three medium eggs, separated
— juice of two medium lemons
1 Tbsp. chilly water
½ tsp. corn flour

Directions

Trim many of the seen fats from the lamb then reduce the meat into 1½” – 2” chunks. Pat down the lamb to take away any extra moisture then brown it on all sides over medium-high warmth within the olive oil in a big Dutch oven.
Add the leeks, onions, and celery to the pot and sauté till the greens soften. Add the rooster inventory to cowl the combination and season it generously with salt and pepper. Cowl and prepare dinner on medium warmth for about 40 minutes.
Mince the dill, reserving some for garnish. Chop the lettuce and add it to the pot, together with the dill. Scale back the warmth, cowl, and simmer for 30 minutes, or, till the lamb is fork-tender and a small quantity of liquid (a few cup or so) stays within the pot. Flip off the warmth.
Put together the egg-lemon (avgolemono) sauce. In a small bowl whisk the egg whites with the teaspoon of chilly water and a little bit corn flour till very frothy. Whisk within the egg yolks and lemon juice (begin with just one lemon if you don’t just like the acidity of the lemon an excessive amount of). Mood the avgolemono sauce by slowly including one ladleful of the new liquid from the pot to the small bowl with the eggs, whereas whisking the entire time. Proceed with a second ladleful of the new liquid and whisk once more. Now add the avgolemono to the pot and stir gently to include. Shake the pot a couple of occasions to ensure every little thing is completely combined collectively.
If it is advisable to reheat the lamb fricassée earlier than serving, achieve this very gently, ensuring the stew doesn’t come to a boil. Place on a serving platter, topped with the reserved minced dill, a drizzle of olive oil and some wedges of lemon. Good, crusty bread is a should and a Greek salad on the facet is all the time a good suggestion.

Notes

Utilizing a boneless piece of leg cuts down the cooking time significantly. To hurry as much as course of much more, ask the butcher to chop up your leg of lamb to items and take away a number of the seen fats.

three.5.3240