Our Margeritsa recipe, let me show you it. Today is Orthodox Easter, and the traditional Lenten fast-breaking soup in Greece for after midnight Saturday before Easter Sunday is "Margeritsa", but since I can't hang with all the lamb intestines and bits, we make our own version. Here's how we made it yesterday: →[More:]

Ingredients

About a pound of chicken hearts and/or livers (optional), boiled and chopped. Reserve the broth.

A pound of mushrooms, wild and domestic, chopped

Two bunches of green onions, chopped

Half a large head of romaine (or other dark) lettuce, chopped

A small bunch of beet greens, chopped (a hefty two-handfuls)

A small bunch of arugula, chopped

Fresh fennel (leaves only, no root), chopped (a couple of handfuls)

A small bunch of fresh Italian/Mediterranean parsley, chopped

Scallion, chopped (we used a medium sized bulb)

Six tablespoons of rice

For Avgolemono: Two eggs; juice of one lemon
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Toss the chopped hearts, mushrooms, veggies and herbs into to the soup pot with the broth and simmer together for a couple of hours. (We actually just tossed things in the pot as we chopped them - they don't have to go in together.) Season with salt and pepper, and add water as needed to keep a soupy consistency.

About a half-hour before the soup is finished cooking, add the six tablespoons of rice. When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat under the pot, and let it cool a bit before incorporating the avgolemono.

To make the avgolemono, break the two eggs into a large bowl and whip with a fork or whisk until they're light, frothy and pale yellow, then continue to whip as you drizzle in the juice from the lemon.

To add it to the soup, ladle out large spoonfuls of hot broth from the soup, and stir it into your egg mixture little by little, drizzling it in (you don't want the hot broth to cook the egg). After you've mixed about three or four ladles of broth with the egg mixture, its temperature will be close enough to the soup temperature to stir into the soup without cooking/breaking up the egg. You are supposed to make kissing sounds as you add the avgolemeno to the soup. :)

note: go nuts with the greens - use what you want. We've used celery before, too, but opted not to, this time. Any kind of not-too-bitter greens are great in this.

Important: When reheating, do not bring to a boil, as it will destroy the avgolemono component. You can still eat it, no problem, if that happens, but it's just not as nice.

And that's it - Margeritsa, Chez Taz. Yum!