My big fat Greek soup

I know that Jewish mothers have a patent on culinary penicillin so I won’t step on any toes here.  Their chicken soup is safe with me.  I do want to mention, however, that Greek mothers have their own miracle-cure-all in chicken soup form and it’s name is Avgolemeno. 

The name Avgolemeno roughly translates as Egg-lemon.  Egg lemon!  Where is the chicken? It’s in there, now you know the answer to the age-old question of what came first the chicken or the egg!   Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

I learned how to make it from my mother like most Greek-American cooks.  My mother was a wonderful cook, but she didn’t own a cookbook.  Specifically marked spoons or cups were not necessary in her eyes.  She drank coffee out of a cup, and stirred it with something called a teaspoon, right?  I can see you cringing so stop it.  Everything that came out of that Greek inspired kitchen tasted, well, heavenly.  If it wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, then it was something new altogether, Opa! 

Now you may think that I am going to give you the recipe for this wonderful soup that makes a cold disappear overnight, but you are wrong.  My daughter tells me that my mother would probably haunt me for that infraction.  And besides I don’t have a recipe…I just toss in this, and stir in that, and heat up this.  Somehow by miraculous intervention, it comes out, well, heavenly!

If you happen to be intrigued and want a recipe there are hundreds of Greek cookbooks out there that contain recipes for Avgolemeno.  Just be aware that there are probably as many variations as there are Greek Islands.  Don’t let it scare you.  Just toss in this, stir in that, and heat up this….