Chicken with artichokes and egg and lemon sauce

CHICKEN WITH ARTICHOKES AND EGG AND LEMON SAUCE

(fricassee in Greek)

Buy a free range rooster, because it tastes better.

The roosters are usually 3.5 to 4 kg each.

Use the half of it. Chill the rest to use it another time.

Ingredients

2kg of free range rooster

1 tbsp coriander grains

2 sprigs fresh rosemary or 1 tablespoon dried rosemary leaves

1 tablespoon black pepper grains
1 bunch of dill
Salt to taste 

1 medium potato

15 artichokes peeled

100 g. olive oil

2 large eggs

The juice of 2 large lemons

Instructions

Rinse thoroughly the cock and then put it in a pot.

Pour water into the pot until it reaches 5 cm above the meat.

Place the pot over high heat.

Shortly before the meat boils, foam apears on the water surface.

Gather with a soup ladle the foam and toss it.

Let the rooster to cook briefly over high heat.

Then reduce the heat to medium.

Put in the pot salt, coriander, rosemary and pepper grains.

Leave the meat to cook for an hour.

Nail a long fork into the meat.

If this fork goes easily into the meat, the meat is boiled.

But if the meat presents resistance and fork can’t go inτο ιt easily, the meet needs more boiling.

When the meat is ready, take the rooster with a slotted spoon off the pot and put it into a pan.

Put a little salt over the meat to improve its taste and let it cool.

Leave aside also the meat broth to cool.

Scour the roosters. Put the meat on a platter. Discard the bones, all the fat, the skin and the tendons.
Cover the cleaned meet of the rooster and leave it aside.

If you are going to use frozen artichokes, they do not need anh cleaning because they are already well cleaned.

If you are going to use fresh artichokes, you must clean them first.

In each artichoke plunk outer green leaves and take them out.

Continue this way until you discover the yellowish inner leaves.

If the inner leaves are tender, then cut out only the barbed top and toss it. 

Put the lower part of the yellowish leaves in the food because when cooked they are delicious.

Cut each artichoke in half with a sharp knife. 
With the same knife remove the hairy leaves that cover the heart of it.

Cut each cleaned piece in half again. Thus each artichoke is cut in 4 pieces.

Put the cleaned artichokes in a bowl with water.

Put in the water with the artichokes, the juice of one lemon.

The lemon juice prevents the artichokes color from turning dark.

Strain with a colander the meat broth in a pot.

Put the pot with the broth in the freezer.

Leave it there to cool.

When the broth is cooled, the fat of the meat forms a white layer which floats on it.

Take the pot with the broth from the freezer.

With a ladle collect the fat that floats on the broth and toss it.

Let the broth aside to use it later.

Put in another pot the olive oil and place the pot over medium heat.

When the oil warms up put the potato diced into the pot.

Stir the potato pieces some times and then add the artichokes.

Lower the heat and let the artichokes to sauté.

Put the cleaned chicken meat into the artichokes.

Stir sometimes and let it cook for a few min to get flavor from the rest ingredients.
Clean the dill.  Use only the leaves. Wash then well and cut them with sessors in small pieces.
Put the pieces of dill into the pot with the artichokes.

Pour into the artichokes broth until it covers all the ingredients.

Increase the heat from medium to high.

Wait for the food to boil.

Once the boiling starts, lower the heat again to medium and cover the pot with its lid.

Let artichokes, potato and meat to boil for 15 minutes.

Peg a fork in an artichoke and see if it has softened.

When every thing is soft and tender it is time to make the egg and lemon sauce. 

Egg and lemon sauce

Squeeze the lemons.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with a Wisk for 2 min.

Without stopping the beating, pour the lemon juice little by little into the bowl.

With a deep soup ladle take boiling broth from the pot and pour it little by little into the bowl with the eggs. With the Wisk contine the beating of the mixture in the bowl. 

Repeat this step two more times.
All together you should put 3 soupe ladles boiling broth from the pot into the bowl.

Remove the pot from the heat.

Pour the egg and lemon sauce into the pot and stir gently.

Let food to cool for 15 min. The food needs this time for the flavors of all the ingredients to mix.

This dish is served lukewarm.

Stuffed vegetables

STUFFED VEGETABLES

Recipe for 8-10 persons

Use a deep pan with dimensions 31CH41CH6 cm.

Ingredients

1/2 kilo ground beef

2 big green peppers

2 red peppers

8 large ripe round tomatoes

3 medium potatoes

4 medium zucchini for filling

4 large onions

Two large elongated aubergines

15-20 flowers of zucchini plant (if you can't find them omit them)

200g grape leaves  

1 bunch dill 
1bunch parsley

Some rosemary leaves

1 cup Carolina rice

200 g olive oil

You need also 2 medium tomatoes, 2 small potatoes, 4 small fresh zucchini.

You will chop all these vegetables and will put them into the filling.

Instructions

Preparation of the vegetables

Wash thoroughly all vegetables.

Cut the stems of the zucchini and tomatoes.

Peel the potatoes.

Chop in a food processor the 4 small zucchinis, the 2 medium tomatoes and the 2 small potatoes.

Put in a large bowl the chopped vegetables.

Remove the stalk from the zucchinis that are for filling.

Cut each zucchini in two pieces.

Cut each eggplant in two pieces.

Place the vegetables side by side in the pan, to see if they fit.

If the pan is not full yet, add more vegetables.

Empty the inside of tomatoes, zucchinis, potatoes and eggplants with a spoon or with a special tool.

Put everything you got from the inside of the vegetables into the food processor and chop it.

Add these chopped vegetables into the bowl with the other vegetables.

Empty peppers and toss their spores.

Wash the zucchini flowers inside and outside. Sometimes these flowers have ants inside them, so look carefully for them.

Put very little salt inside the emptied vegetables.

Take care that the vegetables alternate.

Next to a pepper put one tomato and then one potato and then a zucchini.

Wash the grape leaves well.

Put in one small pot water and put it over high heat.

As soon as the water starts boiling, put 1/3 of the grape leaves in the water.

Their color changes from green to green- beige color.

Take them off the pot and put them in a plate. Leave them there to cool.

Put the second third of the grape leaves in the boiling water and scald them
Take them off the boiling water and put them over the preciously scalded leaves.
Put the remaining leaves in the water and scald them to.
Take them off the boiling water and put them with the other grape leaves.

Stuffing

Chop in the food processor the onions.

Put salt in the minced meat and knead it well.

Put the chopped onions in the minced meat and knead again.

Rinse the rice in a strain and leave it to drain.

Add rice into the minced meat.

Clean the dill, the rosemary and the parsley. Keep the leaves and toss the stems.

Wash thoroughly the herbs and cut them into the minced meat with scissors.

Put all the chopped vegetables into the minced meat.

Pour 100 g olive oil into the stuffing.

Mix well all the ingredients together.

The filling is juicy from the liquids of the chopped vegetables. 

With a tablespoon put stuffing in to all emptied vegetables.

Fill with stuffing the flowers of the zucchini plants and then fold their uper edges to prevent spilling out.

Put the stuffed flowers between the larger vegetables so they won’t dry and also they will help the other vegetables to keep their upright position.

Take a grape leaf and put a tsp stuffing in it.

Fold the left and the right part of the leaf and cover the stuffing.

Then roll the leaf and the stuffing and make a small cylinder.

Continue this way until you use all the leaves and all the stuffing.

If you filled everything and there is still more stuffing, pour it on the pan between the vegetables.

Pour the remaining olive oil little by little over the vegetables.

Add in the pan 1cup water.

Cover the pan with non stick baking paper and put it in the oven, on the first rack from the bottom.

Bake at 200 Celsius degrees for 1 hour.

Take off the paper and bake the food uncovered until the vegetables are cooked and get a nice light brown color.

  

If you don’t want to put any meat in the stuffing, omit it and put more rice in the filling.