SOUP FOR EASTER (mageiritsa in Greek)
This soup is especially made for the Easter. It is a
difficult dish and needs a lot of preparation.
I can divide the work in five main steps.
In the first step you must cook and clean the lamb meat and
the lamb head.
In the second step you must boil, clean and cut the viscera.
In the third step you must cook the viscera properly.
In the forth step you must cook all the meat together in the
broth.
In the fifth step you must make the egg and lemon sauce and put it in the soup.
Ingredients
80
g. margarine
2TB
olive oil
2
kilos of lamb or goat meat (from the neck or the front leg)
The
head of one lamb or the head of one goat
1
large lamb pluck or two small plucks of goats
300
grams of fresh green onions
2
large eggs
2
large lemons
Salt
to taste
50
grams Carolina rice
Instructions
Wash thoroughly the meat of the lamp
and its head and put them in a very big pot.
Place the pot over high heat to boil.
Just before boiling, foam appears on
the water surface.
With a ladle carefully remove the foam
and toss it.
Put a little salt into the pot and
leave the meat to boil for ten min. After that, reduce the heat to medium and
cook for 2 hours.
When the meat is well cooked, it
becomes soft and unsticks from the bones.
Remove with a slotted ladle the meat
from the broth and put it in a pan to cool.
Later on, before using the meat in the
soup, you will separate the meat from the bones.
Let the pot with the broth to cool
completely.
Put this pot in the freezer for about
fifteen minutes to coagulate the fat present in the broth.
When the fat thickens it forms a white
layer that floats on the broth.
With a spoon, remove the white layer of
fat and discard it.
The soup is lighter when the broth is
defatted.
Strain the broth and let aside for
later use.
Put 3 l water in another pot and place
it over high heat to boil.
Once the water boils, pour in the
pluck.
Let the pluck to boil 5-6 minutes and
then remove it from the water.
Put it in a pan and let it to cool.
You should use only the parts of the
pluck that when cooked become tender.
These parts are the liver, the heart,
the lungs and some glands that the animal has around its neck.
Toss the rest of the pluck namely, all
the fats, the bronchi and all the connecting tissue.
With scissors cut the liver, the heart
and the lungs into pieces that have the size of a small bean.
Keep these pieces in a bowl cover with
a kitchen towel.
Remove with your fingers the glands
that there are around the animals neck and put them in the previous bowl.
Kidney has a distinct taste which is
not pleasant for each one.
Many people discard them.
If you want to use the kidneys, you
must boil them first.
Put water in a small pot. Put it over
high heat to boil.
Cut each kidney in the middle and put
them in the boiling water.
Boil them for 10 min to get rid of
their unpleasant odor.
Then cut the kidneys in small pieces
and put them in the bowl with the rest of the intestines.
Now it is time to clean the boiled lamb
meat.
Toss the fat, any pieces of skin you
can find and the bones that there are in the meat.
With scissors cut the meat in pieces
that have the size of a small bean.
Put those pieces of the meat in second bowl.
Take any pieces of meat you can find in
the boiled head of lamb and put them in the second bowl with the meat.
Peel the onions from the outer leaves,
rinse them and cut those in small pieces.
Put in a large and deep pot the
margarine and the oil and place it over medium heat.
Once margarine is melted, throw in the
chopped green onions and stir.
Sauté the onions until they become
soft.
Stir in the green onions, the pieces of
intestine of lamb and reduce heat.
Stir often to prevent sticking.
The pieces of lungs need to be cooked
longer than the pieces of the liver.
Put a few pieces of lung in a small
plate and try some of them to see if they are softened.
If they are not let them cook longer.
The viscera need to cook at least 40
minutes, to soften well.
With a spoon take some viscera and put
them in a small plate.
Try them to see if they are soft and
tender.
If they aren’t cook them more.
Wash the rice and strain it. (Rice may
be omitted).
Put the rice in the pot with the
viscera and stir.
Scour the dill and wash it well.
Put in the pot with the viscera the
pieces of the boiled lamb meat and the pieces of meat from the lamb head.
Stir a few times and then pour in the
strained broth of meat.
Finely chop the dill over the meat and
add salt and pepper.
Boil all meat together over medium heat
for 10 min.
Turn
off the heat.
Egg
and lemon sauce
Squeeze two lemons.
Put in a bowl the eggs and beat them
with a whisk.
Pour the lemon juice little by little into
the eggs stirring continuously.
With a soup ladle take boiling broth
from the pot and pour it slowly into the eggs stirring continuously.
Repeat this 4 more times.
In this way the eggs are slowly cooked
and the sauce remains smooth.
Remove the pot from the heat and pour
in the soup the egg and lemon sauce stirring constantly.
Taste the soup and if necessary correct
seasoning.
This soup in made every Easter and is
served warm at midnight after the mass of the resurrection of the Christ.
