From "Eggs"asperated to "Eggs"tatic

Our Rhode Island Reds have FINALLY laid their very first egg. So, I thought that today would be an "eggs"elent time to talk, well, egg.

Eggs are a wonderful source of protein. Personally, first thing in the morning, I simply cannot abide even the thought, much less smell, of eggs. Combined into other things though (such as chocolate cake!) they are simply wonderful. When I was very small, I had trouble eating solid foods, so I was given these wonderful tasting "protein" shakes (this is before they actually came out with protein shakes - am I dating myself here?) made from milk, raw egg, vanilla flavoring, a dash of sugar, some fruit (banana, strawberry, etc.) and maybe some wheat germ as well, all blended together and though it may sound yucky, was VERY YUMMY!!!! MMMMM!!!! My children love these as well.

So today, I will be posting some traditional Greek recipes for eggs from a cookbook called "Traditional Greek Cooking" by Sofia Skoura, that a friend of mine in Greece, Hanna, sent me. Thanks, Hanna! Love the cookbook!

Fried Eggs in Tomato Sauce "Avga matia me saltsa domatas"

750 g ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
6 eggs
5 tbsp. butter
salt, pepper

This first recipe has 2 methods of cooking.

First Method:

Boil the tomatoes for two minutes, then put in cold water for two minutes and peel. Slice, remove the many seeds and put in a pan, with a little salt, to cook to a pulp. Add the butter. When it is hot enough, break the eggs in a shallow dish, salt and pepper them, then put in the pan. Splash hot butter over them to cook the top of the eggs. Serve them in a dish covered with the tomato sauce and sprinkled with parsley, along with fried potatoes.

Second Method:

Prepare the sauce and fry the eggs. After they have fried, remove them one by one and lay them on top of a slice of toast. Pour a little sauce over the eggs and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Eggs with Minced Meat "Avga tyligmena me kima"

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 kg minced meat
1 slice of toast or zwieback
1 egg
130 g of crushed bread crumbs
1 tbsp. tomato paste or salt, pepper
1/2 kg ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp chopped parsley
margarine for frying
1 pinch of cinnamon

Note: For those of you that do not know, zwieback is that hard crusty bread that is commonly given to babies that are teething, along with arrowroot biscuits.

Soak the toast or zwieback then squeeze it very well. Mix the minced meat, toast, parsley, yolk of one egg and a little salt and pepper. Carefully peel the 6 hard-boiled eggs. Make 6 small balls of the ground meat mixture. Knead each ball of meat in the palm of your hand. Set each hard-boiled egg in one minced meat ball. Shape the meat and egg into a ball, so that it is impossible to distinguish where the meat and egg join. Take care to pack the minced meat to the egg so that the meat and egg balls don't open during frying. If desired, you can dip each ball into egg white beaten along with a tbsp. of water. Or, dip each hard-boiled egg into the egg white then into crushed bread crumbs for frying. Dissolve the tomato-paste in a cup of water or strain the ripe tomatoes through a colander and put the tomato pulp in a pan to cook with the oil. Add one pinch of cinnamon. Once the sauce cooks and thickens, cut each meat and egg ball in half, set in the sauce and cook them briefly, in order to be softened slightly and not be too hard. Arrange the meat and egg balls on a serving dish and pour the sauce over them. Serve with cooked spinach or mashed potatoes.


Well, that's it for today's egg recipes. Thanks again to my very good friend, Hanna, for the Greek cookbook they came from.

It's a good thing I tend to cook by sight rather than measuring things, because I really have no idea how much a gram or kilogram would be ... So take the recipes and enjoy, make the measurements the best you can, and if it looks right, it probably is. Of course, the best test of all, is tasting it *smile*

..... 2011 - As this is from an old blog from years ago, here is an update: I no longer own chickens, and must now buy my eggs from the grocery store.