Arnaki (Lamb) Fricassee with Artichokes

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Arnaki (Lamb) Fricassee is a Greek dish with a white sauce made with eggs and lemon juice, called Avgolemono.  It can be made with either lamb or goat and the addition of various vegetables varies, depending on the season.

During spring to early summer, this is a very popular dish in restaurants in Argolida, where I live, as 90% of the production of artichokes in Greece, comes from Iria, which is about 25 km from Nafplio.

If you don’t know how to clean and trim artichokes, I have you covered in an older post.

On Wednesday when I went to the farmers’ market I saw that artichokes were still sold there.

When the artichokes are cheap, I usually buy a lot, clean them and put them in the freezer in batches as those sold in the supermarkets are much more expensive.

However, this is a dish you can enjoy all the year round as you can make it with frozen artichokes, which is equally delicious.

However, if you want to make this dish after the artichoke season, try it with lettuce, which in fact is the most popular fricassée recipe.

However, you can also make it with any leafy greens, such as wild greens, with purslane, with stamnaggathi, with zucchini, with asparagus, with oyster (pleurotus) mushrooms, with taro, with celery or with celeriac and leeks.

To be frank though, I prefer the last three options made with pork rather than lamb or goat.

To flavour it you use dill or wild fennel or other aromatic herbs such as parsley, Mediterranean hartwort (kafkaliithres) or chevril (myronia).

To make this dish, baby lamb or goat, usually from the leg or shoulder and foreshank is cut into portions, washed, pat dried and sauteed with olive oil, in a pot.  

It is cooked until fork tender and then the vegetables are added and cooked for about 10 – 20 minutes, depending on the vegetables.

Finally, the avgolemono (egg lemon mixture) is added to make the sauce.

Lamb and goat are quite expensive in Greece so if you can’t afford them, or if you don’t like these meat, you can make the same dish with pork or chicken or even with fish, which, however, should be a boneless fillet.

Be careful though, as the time required to cook with other meat is not the same.  Chicken needs less time than pork and fish even less.

A vegetarian dish can also be made substituting meat with oyster (pleurotus) mushrooms.

You can find my Arnaki (Lamb) Fricassee with Artichokes recipe at the end of the post.

Lamb Fricassee with lettuce or other leafy greens:

The ingredients and method are the same with that of the artichokes given at the end of the post, but instead of artichokes, you will need at least three big Romaine lettuce heads.

• Wash the lettuce leaves and cut them in big pieces.
• Blanche them for five minutes to wilt.  Drain and set aside.
• When the meat is cooked add the lettuce and cook for fifteen more minutes.
• Add the Avgolemono sauce.

  Katsikaki me Glystrida kai Maratho Fricassee

  (Baby Goat with Purslane and Fennel)

  

  I made this recipe last year when there was lots of purslane growing in our garden.  Unfortunately, this year I have not seen any purslane yet.

  Katsikaki me Glystrida kai Maratho Fricassee

  Preparation time:  30 minutes

  Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes

• Serves:  5

• Ingredients:

• 1 kilo baby goat from the leg, cut into chunks
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 1 tsp roasted garlic, mashed
• 1 cup white dry wine
• 2 cups (plus 2 more) water
• 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
• Freshly grated black pepper
• ½ tsp crashed fennel seeds
• ½ cup wild fennel, finely chopped
• 500 grams purslane

  Avgolemono sauce:

• 3 eggs
• ½ cup lemon juice

  Directions:

  1. Wash and dry the meat.
  2. Wash and dry purslane.  Cut it into 5 – 6 cm pieces, discarding tough ends.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a large pot and sauté the goat meat on all sides.
  4. Add the onion and sauté until translucent.
  5. Add the garlic, mix for a few seconds and add the wine.
  6. Cook for a few minutes until the alcohol evaporates and add water.
  7. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about one hour.
  8. Check if the meat has become tender.  If not add more water (I added 2 more cups) and continue cooking.
  9. Add purslane and fennel as well as salt, pepper and fennel seeds and and cook for fifteen more minutes.
  10. Add Avgolemono sauce.
  11. Let it rest for fifteen minutes and then serve.

      

Kopiaste and Kali Orexi!

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