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Pork With Celery, Leeks And Egglemon Sauce – A Greek Classic Christmas Dish

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Authentic Greek pork with celery in avgolemono sauce, a traditional Christmas dish cooked in Greek homes during winter. Comforting, lemony, and classic.

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 600 g pork butt (pork shoulder), cut into small pieces
  • 2-3 celery stalks with leaves
  • 1 small celery root, grated
  • 2 small leeks, rinsed and patted dry
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • water (as needed)
For the Avgolemono Sauce
  • 3 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
  • juice of 1-2 lemon

Instructions

  1. Rinse the celery stalks and leaves, pat dry, and peel the stalks if fibrous.

  2. Cut the celery into 5 cm pieces and roughly chop the leaves. Slice thick stalks lengthwise. Set aside.

  3. Grate or finely chop the celery root.

  4. Chop the leeks.

  5. Pat the pork dry and season with salt and pepper.

  6. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over high heat.

  7. Brown the pork in batches, undisturbed, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a bowl.

  8. Lower heat to medium-low. Add celery, celery root, and leeks. Cook for 5 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally.

  9. Return the pork to the pot. Add enough water to barely cover the meat. Bring to a boil.

  10. Reduce to a gentle simmer, partially cover, and cook for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally, until the pork is fork-tender.

  11. Remove from heat. Ladle out ¾–1 cup of hot broth into a heatproof measuring cup.

  12. In a bowl, whisk the eggs – preferably with a mixer –  until frothy and very pale yellow. Add the lemon juice. Stir in the cornstarch diluted with 2 tbsp cold water and mix.

  13. Slowly whisk in 2 ladles of hot broth to temper the eggs.

  14. Touch the bowl and make sure it’s hot. If not add one more laddle of the broth.
  15. Take the pot out of fire.

  16. Pour the avgolemono back into the pot, stirring gently.

  17. Put the pot back on fire (very low heat).

  18. Let rest for 5 minutes to thicken. Taste and adjust seasoning or add more lemon if you want it more lemony.

  19. Serve with good crusty bread.

Find it online: https://cookinathensrecipes.com/pork-celery-avgolemono/