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Recipe for "avgolemono"

NAME

     AVGOLEMONO - Greek style egg & lemon chicken soup
     Avgolemono in greek means "egg and lemon" and  is  the  most
     popular  technique for preparing soup in Greece. So much so,
     that unless stated otherwise, when one talks  of  soup,  one
     means  avgolemono  soup.  What  follows  is  a recipe for my
     favourite, chicken soup, but feel  free  to  substitute  any
     kind of meat or fish broth for the chicken.

INGREDIENTS (Serves four -hungry- people)

     2 l       chicken broth  (You  can  get  away  with  instant
               broth, but make sure it is of good quality. I usu-
               ally use Knorr Chicken Bouillon cubes)
     50 g      white rice (Unconverted-not Uncle Ben's!!!)
     2         eggs (large, or use 3 small or medium eggs)
     1         lemon
     7.5 ml    salt (or more to taste)

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Bring the broth to a boil, and add  the  rice  and
               salt. Let rice cook for 15-20 minutes.
          (2)  Remove pot from stove and let it cool for a while.
          (3)  Separate the whites from the egg-yolks,  and  beat
               the  whites  in a large bowl, until they thicken a
               little. Add the yolks and the juice of the  lemon,
               and beat until you get a uniform mixture.
          (4)  Now carefully, using a ladle,  pour  some  of  the
               warm  broth  into  the  egg mixture, while beating
               continuously. When your bowl  is  full,  pour  the
               contents  back  into the remaining broth, and stir
               until you get a uniform mixture.
          (5)  Now serve and, I hope, enjoy!

NOTES

     The  process  of  steps  3  and  4  is  known  in  greek  as
     "avgokomma",  and  describes both this process and what will
     happen if you are not very careful-the  egg  will  coagulate
     and  spoil everything! In order to avoid such an unfortunate
     occurrence, you must let the  broth  cool  a  little  before
     adding  the egg. This can easily be done by starting to beat
     the eggs only after you have  removed  the  broth  from  the
     stove,  thus  giving  time to the broth to cool. However, if
     you're in a hurry, you can pour a small glass of cold  water
     into  the  broth  (which  will  obviously make the soup more
     diluted). The broth must be poured slowly into the  egg  and
     lemon  mixture,  but the two must be blended quickly (use of
     an electric mixer is recommended).
     The original recipe does  not  require  beating  the  whites
     separately,  so you can simply beat the eggs whole until the
     whites blend with the yolks, and then add the lemon. If  you
     prepare  the  eggs  this way, the soup will be a little less
     smooth.
     The soup can be kept in the refrigerator for a day  or  two.
     Be  careful  not  to  bring it to a boil when re-heating it,
     because the egg will coagulate.

RATING

     Difficulty: moderate (handling of eggwhites  in  soup  takes
     experience).   Time:  30  minutes.   Precision:  Approximate
     measurement OK.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Kriton Kyrimis
     Princeton University, Computer Science Dept.
     princeton!tilt!kyrimis
     "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow..."