Slow Cooker Giouvarlakia – Meatballs in Egg-lemon Sauce or Soup

Tags

avgolemono, crockpot, egg lemon sauce, Giouvarlakia, Greek, lemon, meatballs, minced meat, potatoes, slow cooker, soup, vegetables

For a while now I’ve been meaning to try and adapt this classic Greek recipe for preparation in the slow cooker. It’s one of those things I usually remember at the wrong time, like when I haven’t defrosted the minced meat. Finally, on Saturday I remembered to take the meat out of the freezer, buy parsley, and properly plan my experiment for Sunday. This had to be a weekend endeavour for me, as I knew the meatballs wouldn’t need all day in the slow cooker, and my working hours have me away from home for at least 9.5 hours on weekdays.

Giouvarlakia are meatballs made with rice in the mixture, cooked in water or stock and served (traditionally) in egg-lemon soup (Avgolemono). If you don’t fancy soup, this version makes the juice just thick enough to act as a sauce (albeit a runny one), ideal for being mopped up with fresh crusty bread. Chips (French fries) are also good vessels to use for plate cleaning in this case. The resulting meatballs are similar to the insides of these stuffed courgettes, but are much easier to make.

I started by prepping the veg, cutting it into fairly small pieces to cook quicker, and getting it going in the Crockpot. I then made my Giouvarlakia, slightly on the large side so as to delay cooking time a bit and allow enough time for the potatoes and carrots to soften. They were bigger than golf ball size, with about 3-4 level tablespoons of mixture in each one. The amounts stated below gave me nine meatballs. I used a 4 quart Crockpot and the meat, perched on top of the veg, was partially submerged in the 3 cups of water.

Slow Cooker Giouvarlakia

Serves 3

Ingredients

1 medium sized potato, cut into smallish pieces (approx. 3-5 cm or 1-2 inches)
2 small carrots, sliced
1 celery stick cut into chunks
3 cups of water or stock
500g minced meat (I used a mix of beef and pork, you can use just beef if preferred)
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 Tbs parsley, chopped finely
5 Tbs rice for risotto (Arborio or similar)
2 tsp salt, divided
¼ tsp pepper (I used white)
1 tsp olive oil
2 eggs
1 large lemon, juice

Instructions

1. Place potatoes, carrots and celery in the bottom of the slow cooker insert and pour in the water. If you want to help things along and maybe shorten cooking time, you can use boiling water. I used 2 cups cold, 1 cup boiling. Sprinkle one teaspoon of salt over veg and water. Turn on slow cooker to low.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the meat, onion, parsley, rice, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and oil. Mix well with your hands till it comes together, but don’t over mix so the meatballs aren’t too dense.
3. Shape the mixture into meatballs and place on top of the veg in the slow cooker. Some won’t be completely submerged, that’s fine.
4. Leave them to cook for about 6 hours and check for doneness. You can use a thermometer or break one in two and take a peek. I find that the thermometer is best, as sometimes meat in the slow cooker keeps a sort of pinky colour, even if it’s well over the required temperature. Mine were in for 6 ½ hours on low and were done, as was the veg. During cooking (after about 3 hours) I also turned them upside down once, using barbeque tongs, but I’m sure they would have been fine even if I hadn’t disturbed them at all.
5. When the meatballs are ready take them out of the slow cooker with a slotted spoon (keep them warm as best you can, but don’t worry too much). In a mixing bowl beat the eggs and lemon juice till well combined. Place the bowl next to the slow cooker, and using a ladle, slowly add small amounts of hot juice into the egg mixture, beating continuously. Start with about one tablespoon at a time, and gradually increase the amount of juice added to the bowl. This is called tempering the eggs and it needs to be done so they don’t scramble. When most of the juice from the Crockpot has been transferred to the egg mixture, and the bowl feels warm to the touch, pour the mixture back into the insert. Take the insert out of the base and move it round a bit, so the sauce goes all round the veg, and place it back into the slow cooker.
6. Put the meatballs back into the sauce (or soup!), cover and leave for about 5 minutes till it’s all warmed through again. Keep an eye on it so the egg doesn’t misbehave!
7. Serve with fresh crusty bread and feta cheese.

Note: If you want to enjoy this as a soup, I suggest you use 4 cups of stock instead of the 3 cups of water.

Slow Cooker Meatball Mania!
Slow Cooker Meatballs with Orange Marmalade, by The Chic Life
Slow Cooker Asian Meatballs, by Taste and Tell
Apple, Turkey and Cheddar Meatballs Crockpot Recipe, by A Year of Slow Cooking
Almost Dukan Friendly Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs, by On Top of Spaghetti

Artichokes A La Polita – Slow and Not So Slow

Tags

artichokes, avgolemono, crockpot, Dukan diet friendly, egg lemon sauce, Greek, slow cooker, vegan, vegetarian

Recently I’ve found myself adapting more and more traditional Greek recipes for the slow cooker. I’m pleasantly surprised by the many options and how easily adaptable they are. However, I realize there are many people out there who don’t own slow cookers, especially here in Greece, so I’ve decided where possible to include some brief instructions for a stove top method.
A La Polita means Of The City; however in Greece when you hear “The City” it means Constantinople (Istanbul). The original version of this recipe comes from Turkey, and was made with artichokes, whole small onions (shallots) and lots of oil. Over the years it has changed a bit and now usually includes spring onions instead of shallots, potatoes, carrots and sometimes peas. It can be made plain with a bit of lemon juice, or swimming in my favourite (yes you guessed it) egg lemon sauce!
I use frozen artichokes. You can use fresh if you want to, but for me they are a MAJOR pain. Once when we were visiting the village The Mister’s dad and I went for a walk and picked loads of lovely fresh ones, so I did the whole cleaning and rubbing with lemon thing and picking/spitting out tough bits all through dinner thing. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. I can now enjoy the convenience of modern life and buy them all clean and white and ready to cook.
Usually the veggies are cooked in water, but in this case I used chicken stock to give it some extra flavour. I threw all the ingredients in the CrockPot together, but keep in mind this will give you very soft artichokes after the many hours of cooking. If you prefer them to hold a bit, you could try adding them a couple of hours after you’ve started the potatoes and carrots. I’ve not done this, so if you do please come back and let us know how it worked out!

Slow Cooker Artichokes A La Polita

Serves 2-3
What you need:
400g frozen artichokes
3 small potatoes, cut into smallish pieces
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 spring onion (or more if you like), thinly sliced (I used only the white bit)
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup water (I added this because my stock was homemade and quite thick and jellied. It may not be necessary if your stock is watery)
½ lemon (juice of)
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 sprigs of fresh dill weed, finely chopped (I forgot to buy some so I didn’t use it, but it’s nice)
For the egg lemon sauce
1 egg
3 Tbs lemon juice (or more if you like it quite lemony)

What you do:

1. Add potatoes, carrots and onions to the slow cooker. Mine is a 4quart.
2. Add artichokes on top.
3. Pour the rest of the ingredients over the top.
4. Cook on low for 8 hours or until potatoes are cooked through. Stir occasionally so they cook evenly, but be careful not to crush the artichokes.
5. An hour or so before the end of cooking time, take the egg out of the fridge so it comes to room temperature.
6. When the veggies are ready, take a clean bowl and crack the egg in it. Add the lemon juice and whisk.
7. Without turning the slow cooker off, take the insert out and place it on a heat proof surface. Carefully temper the egg mixture by taking a spoonful of sauce at a time from the slow cooker and adding it to the bowl while whisking continuously. Do this slowly and patiently so your egg doesn’t scramble. You want the mixture in the bowl to slowly warm up enough so that you can pour it into the slow cooker. When you have a good amount of sauce in the bowl and it feels nice and warm, pour it into the artichoke stew. Hold the insert with both hands and swirl it in a circling motion so that the egg mixture goes everywhere and mixes into the stew.
8. Put the insert back in the slow cooker and let it warm through again (on low). I test the sauce with a food thermometer just to make sure the egg is cooked. Temp should read at least 160F.
9. Enjoy with feta cheese and crusty bread.

Stove top method:

What you need (extra to above ingredients):
1/3 cup olive oil
Water (enough to almost cover veggies)

What you do:

1. In a saucepan warm the oil over a medium heat and add onions. Cook gently till soft and fragrant.
2. Add the carrot and potatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes stirring frequently.
3. Turn the heat up to medium high and add the artichokes. Sauté for a couple more minutes.
4. Add dill, lemon juice, salt & pepper, chicken stock and water until just covering the veggies. Bring to a boil.
5. Turn heat down to low so that the stew is slowly simmering. Cook for about an hour, or until veggies have the desired tenderness and the sauce has reduced.
6. Prepare your egg mixture and temper as above, before returning it to the heat for a few minutes.

Notes: You can omit the egg lemon sauce and use only water or veg stock instead of chicken, in order to make a vegan version. Thicken the sauce at the end of cooking (if necessary) using a corn flour slurry.
The slow cooker version is also Dukan Diet friendly (Consolidation Phase).

Other recipes using artichokes:
Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes by The Pioneer Woman
Artichoke Soup by Simply Recipes
Chicken and Artichokes in Wine Sauce by The Kitchn
Slow Cooker Shrimp and Artichoke Barley Risotto by Cara’s Cravings via Slow Cooker From Scratch recipe collection

Other traditional Greek recipes adapted for the slow cooker:
Slow Cooker Village Rooster “Kokkinisto”
Stuffed Courgettes (Zucchini) with Egg Lemon Sauce (as featured on Slow Cooker From Scratch)
Revithia from Sifnos (Traditional Chickpea Soup)
Pork Lemonato (as featured on Slow Cooker From Scratch)

Stuffed Courgettes (Zucchini) with Egg Lemon Sauce – My Slow Cooker Success

Tags

avgolemono, courgettes, crockpot, egg lemon sauce, Greek, slow cooker, vegetables, zucchini

A couple of weeks ago I decided to experiment with another slow cooker adaptation. I had prepared myself towards a possible flop because after all, I was trying something quite tricky. I started by looking for a traditional recipe for this dish as it wasn’t something I knew off by heart. I’d only ever made it once, the regular way, a few years ago. I found one I liked the look of, and kept the quantities to a minimum, just so that if it was going to be a disaster, I wouldn’t end up hyperventilating at the waste of good food! Well. I needn’t have worried! After the first taste test I was high fiving myself, punching the air and doing a little victory dance round the house. Yes, I was mighty proud of myself, and I still wear a bit of a smug expression when I look at the pictures!

So, Stuffed Courgettes (or Zucchini if you’re reading from the US) in an Egg Lemon Sauce. Delicious. Ok, I admit, anything in egg lemon sauce is delicious for me, but this dish really is good. Here in Greece, up until a few years ago, you could only get the long green courgettes. Recently though, you see these really cute variations that have the same colour and taste, only they look like they’ve swallowed a tennis ball! Seriously, I find their almost perfect round shape hilarious, I don’t know why. When I saw some in the supermarket I thought right, I am going to try these stuffed, in the slow cooker. Actually they are ideal for stuffing as they have so much flesh, thus lots of room for filling, once the flesh is removed.

Now I must warn you, this isn’t a throw-everything-into-the-slow-cooker-and-turn-on type of recipe. It takes some prepping. But it’s worth it, and you do avoid the whole palaver of trying to boil the stuffed zuckes with an upside-down plate lying on top of them (yes, I know, weird – I think it’s to stop them moving around).

I’m not big on taking photos of each step when trying a recipe, usually because it’s what’s for dinner and needs to be completed in a reasonable amount of time. Also, more often than not, I’ll forget to snap a step or two and then it’s all messed up anyway. This time however, I couldn’t resist a couple of extra photos during the preparation of the courgettes – they are just so pretty. And I thought it might help readers to visualise certain aspects of the process (i.e. gutting the zuckes). And they’re so pretty.
So, here they are. See I told you they were cute (ok, sorry, I’ll stop now). You start by slicing the tops off, to make little lids. Keep them aside. To get the insides out I suggest the following tools: a knife (smallish, you want good control) and –ideally- a melon scoop (at least I think that’s what that is). What a useful contraption. It came in a set of three, a citrus zester, an apple corer and this spoon-like thing that looks like a mini ice cream scoop with a hole the middle. I gather it’s for making little balls of melon or watermelon. It’s great for scooping out the courgette flesh because it’s sharpish around the edge and you can position it at a good angle inside. So, you start scooping leaving a wall around the bottom and sides of the veg. You want them to be sturdy enough to hold, but you also want room for a decent amount of filling. I left just under one centimeter of flesh. It’s a good idea to lift the courgettes and hold them in your hands while scooping; this way you can sort of feel how close you’re getting to the sides. If you’re using regular, long zucchini you might find an apple corer useful, at least in the beginning. After you get the first chunks out continue with a small spoon.

Remember you need to keep the flesh. Some of it goes in the recipe, some of it you can keep for something else. I made the most unbelievable zucchini bread and was planning on doing a double post today; then I promptly ate the two last pieces before I’d taken any photos of it. I do that often, I think I’d have twice as many posts up already if I remembered to take pictures of all the things I make. Aaanyway. The two round zuckes gave me 1 ¼ cups of flesh. This of course largely depends on the size of the vegetables.

After I made the filling and stuffed the two courgettes I discovered that I had quite a bit of filling left over. I rummaged through the produce drawer in the fridge and discovered this lovely white aubergine (eggplant), so out it came. The two zuckes fit perfectly in my slow cooker (it’s only a small one), leaving no room for anything else. So now I also had to employ the services of my second slow cooker! Now that the extra room issue was solved I decided to plop some potatoes and carrots in with the aubergine as well. All set.After they cooked for about 5 ½ hours on low and were pretty much ready, I decided to make the egg lemon sauce. This is easy, but needs some attention when it’s transferred back into the slow cooker. I tempered the eggs (for more details on this see my Egg Lemon Chicken Soup) and then poured the sauce into the slow cookers with the veg and left it for about 5 minutes on low. I then tested the sauce with a food thermometer and it was well over 140F which is the minimum for cooking eggs, so I turned the cookers to warm and served shortly afterwards. The total cooking time was about 6-6 ½ hours.

Result? Gorgeous. Really tasty. And I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t fall apart when I took them out of the slow cooker. The courgette skins had cooked to a perfect consistency. Not pull-apart-with-your-fork soft but cut-with-the-side-of-your-fork soft. The eggplant was also just right, as were the potatoes and the carrots. Success!

Slow Cooker Stuffed Zucchini in Egg Lemon Sauce
Serves 2-3

What you need:
2 large or 3 medium round courgettes (zucchini). You can use long ones, I’d say probably 4 large (I suggest you have one or two extra on hand in case you end up with lots of leftover filling. Don’t gut the extras till you know you need them, to avoid waste)
200g minced/ground meat (I used a combination or beef and pork)
½ medium onion, minced
2 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
2 Tbs fresh chopped dill weed
¼ cup risotto rice (like Arborio)
Salt and pepper
½ tsp dried thyme
1/3 cup olive oil
1 ½ cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 egg
Juice of ½ lemon

What you do:

1. Slice off the top of the courgettes in order to form little lids. Scoop out the insides as described above, leaving a wall of flesh around the inside of the veg.
2. Keep ¼ cup of the flesh and chop it up. Put the rest away in the fridge till you find a good recipe for it.
3. Heat half the olive oil in a frying pan, over medium heat. Gently cook the onion being careful it doesn’t brown or burn, till it’s translucent.
4. Add the meat to the pan, and turn up the heat to medium high. Break up the meat clumps with a wooden spoon and keep stirring till you don’t see any more pink bits.
5. Add the parsley, dill weed, courgette flesh, rice and salt & pepper, turn down the heat a bit and continue to gently sauté over a medium heat, for about 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously.
6. Add ¼ cup water to the pan, and let it reduce, stirring the meat mixture frequently.
7. When the water has reduced almost completely, take the mixture off the heat and leave to cool slightly. Use a spoon to fill the vegetables with the meat mixture, leaving a couple of centimeters space from the top.
8. Replace the lids on the vegetables and put them in the slow cooker.
9. Add 1 ½ cups of vegetable stock to the slow cookers, so that the liquid comes up the sides of the courgettes by about 1/3.
10. Turn slow cooker on and cook on low for about 5 ½ hours. We have mostly cooked the meat, so the only thing that needs cooking really is the rice.
11. After 5 ½ hours try prying open one of the lids, and lifting out some filling. You will see it will have increased in volume and may now reach the top. If the rice is cooked and soft you can go on to make the egg lemon sauce.
12. Beat the egg and lemon juice in a medium/large bowl. Slowly add spoonfuls of the cooking liquid into the egg mixture, one at a time, being careful that the egg doesn’t scramble.
13. As you add the warm liquid you can slowly increase the size of the spoonfuls. When the mixture in your bowl is quite warm, with lots of the juice in it, take out the insert of your slow cooker and set it somewhere heat-safe. Carefully pour the egg lemon mixture back into the slow cooker, lift it and swirl it around to mix it.
14. Put the insert back into the slow cooker and leave on low for about 5 minutes. This should do it in terms of egg cooking time.
15. If you want to be sure, test the sauce with a thermometer; it should be over 140F.
16. Take out the veggies, spoon some sauce over them and enjoy with fresh bread and feta cheese.

For ideas on what to do with the leftover zucchini flesh, take a wander over to Kalyn’s Kitchen. She has lots of lovely recipes for this wonderful veg, including these gorgeous Whole Wheat Zucchini Muffins with Green Chiles and Cheese. I’ve made these and they’re yummy.

Feed a cold… (Egg-lemon Chicken Soup)

Tags

avgolemono, chicken, egg-lemon, soup

So my second post is up much sooner than I thought it would be! The Mister has been attacked by a vicious cold and has been sitting hugging a box of tissues for the past couple of days. So yesterday we had egg-lemon chicken soup for dinner. A bowl full of goodness that’s great any day, but especially great if you’re feeling poorly. I was actually planning on making it soon anyway, since it fits in nicely with the healthy eating plan I’m following these days. Its nutrition comes from loads of veggies and chunks of juicy chicken, cooked in a lovely broth. I think the lemon also gives it an extra boost with its vitamin C.
Here in Greece this is a very popular dish; we call it “Avgolemono” meaning Egg (Avgo)-Lemon (Lemoni). Don’t ask why lemoni turns into lemono… Greek is a complicated language!
Normally, I would have cooked the chicken in the slow cooker, and then used the liquid produced from that to make the soup. However, since this was an emergency and the appropriate supermarket visit could only be made after work, I had to do it the traditional way. Which is fine, and still pretty easy!
Sometimes new cooks are a little intimidated by this soup, as you have to temper the eggs at the end. This is much easier than people think, you just have to be patient and a little organized! So, here goes…
(Oh, wait. This is actually my own recipe! Cool!)

Chicken Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon) Soup

You’ll need:
3 litres of water (see? easy)
1 small chicken, about 1.2 kg, bone in, cut into four or five pieces (um, let the butcher do that bit)
1 medium onion, peeled
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into medium sized pieces
2 carrots, peeled or scraped (or just washed!) and cut into smallish pieces
1 small celeriac (celery root) about 300gr, peeled and cut into medium sized pieces
½ bunch of celery (in Greece celery looks like parsley and comes in bunches) or 2 sticks of celery (the thick whiteish kind), chopped
½ bunch of parsley, chopped
Salt & Pepper
½ cup of rice
2 eggs
Juice of 1 or 2 lemons (depending on how lemony you like it)

What you do:

1. First of all, before you start, take the lemons and eggs out of the fridge. It’s best if they are at, or near, room temperature when you use them at the end.
2. Bring the water to the boil in a large saucepan. Remember that the level will rise when you add all the other ingredients. In the meantime rinse the chicken under cold water. Always be careful with poultry and clean all surfaces it has come into contact with, with warm soapy water (otherwise you might end up with a cold and salmonella!).
3. When the water is boiling add some salt, the onion (whole) and the chicken pieces. Let the meat boil on a medium high heat, and skim any foam off the surface. Or don’t bother, I didn’t and nothing bad happened!
4. Boil the chicken until the meat falls easily off the bone (take a piece out and test it by pulling apart with a fork, the meat should separate from the bone easily, if in doubt leave it in a bit longer!). This should take about 40 minutes.
5. Take the chicken pieces out of the pan and turn the heat down so it’s not bubbling away and evaporating. Let the meat cool (really, let it cool, the tips of my fingers still hurt) before picking it from the bones. If there was some skin, remove it and throw it away. My bones go straight into the slow cooker for overnight stock (more about that another time). Break the meat into chunks and set aside.
6. Bring the soup back to the boil and add all the vegetables, some more salt and some pepper. Now, depending on how soft you want the veggies, either let them boil for about 10 minutes before adding the rice, or add it straight away. Just remember each time you add something the liquid should be boiling, and then left to come back to the boil if it’s cooled down by whatever went in. Then turn the heat down to a good simmer.
7. When the rice is half done (after about 10 minutes), throw in the chicken chunks to warm through. Both the veggies and rice need a minimum of about 20 minutes each, so calculate your timings based on that. The great thing about soup is that you don’t have to be 100% precise!
8. At some point during all this you can take the onion out. Either mash it up and put it back in, or chuck it.
9. After the soup is ready (veg and rice cooked/soft, chicken warm) turn the heat right down. It’s time to do the egg-lemon mixture. Get organised. Bring all your utensils near (a tablespoon, a ladle and a whisk). In a medium sized bowl (not a small one) beat the eggs a bit. Pour in the lemon juice and continue beating. Bring your bowl near the stove top. Take the pan off the heat and put it next to the bowl. With a tablespoon, take a spoonful of soup (just the liquid) and add it to the bowl with the egg-lemon, beating continuously. Repeat with another spoonful. And again. And again. Keep beating! Basically you want to bring the temperature of the eggs up -slowly- so they cook without scrambling. Keep adding spoonfuls of the hot soup into the mixture (one spoonful at a time). Feel the side of the bowl. If it’s getting warm, switch to a ladle so you get larger quantities of soup into your eggs. When your mixture is looking more like the soup, and is warm/hot, you can carefully pour it into the pan, stirring continuously. There, that was it!

Serve the soup with extra lemon, freshly ground pepper and crusty bread. This makes enough for four people.

Tip: If you want to make the soup thicker, you can blend some or all of the veg before putting in the rice and chicken. This means it will take longer as you’ll have to wait for the veg to soften before you can blend the soup and continue with the rice. However, this helps if you have to hide certain vegetables that people think they don’t like 😉 Use an immersion blender, anything else would be too faffy and you’d get annoyed with me and stop reading my blog.

Enjoy! Or, Get well soon!