Last week I decided to fry the tomatoes, and instead of mixing in the eggs, I nestled them in the pan, and after 2-3 minutes, I moved the pan to a 200 C oven and baked for 5-8 minutes, until the eggwhite was opaque. We enjoyed it enormously with fresh crusty bread. 

Plain scrambled eggs are not a common Greek dish, but a huge egg and tomato scramble, as you might find in a Greek diner in America, is still a national institution. Some people add crumbled feta in the pan, but I much prefer to sprinkle it at the end; I enjoy my strapatsada with toasted bread or with olive-oil-fried potato slices, a heavenly combination!

Serve with toasted multi-grain, whole-wheat bread and a green salad, or with roast vegetables I often serve it with toasted bulgur pilaf, but simple sliced potatoes fried in olive oil are still my favorite complement.

See also the Scrambled Eggs with Fava beans which is another somewhat different, yet equally delicious combination. 

Menemen, the Turkish version, has diced peppers, both sweet and hot, along with tomatoes and chopped scallions. The Provençale bruillade à l’Arlésienne (scrambled eggs from Arles) has grated zucchini, tomatoes and garlic (see variations). Much like classic scrambled eggs, strapatsada needs to be soft and creamy, not dry or too watery. I use my own tomato confit or add a few sun-dried tomatoes to the pan to get the intense tomato flavor I remember from my childhood. 

Serves 2-4 as a main course, 5-6 as part of a meze spread

12 ripe plum tomatoes, confit (recipe follows) or 6  canned plum tomatoes (best quality), drained, plus 6 sun-dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2-3 tablespoons olive oil (less if you use tomato confit)

4-5 eggs

Salt

1/4 cup thick Greek yogurt

1 good pinch Maraş pepper or red pepper flakes, to taste

Feta cheese, crumbled (optional)

Good fruity olive oil, for drizzling

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or thyme (optional)

2-3 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley (optional)

Toasted whole-wheat bread slices, for serving

If you use tomato confit, place in a skillet together with their oil and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often to thicken.

If you use canned and sun-dried tomatoes, warm 4 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet, add the tomatoes and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often for 10 minutes or until thickened.

In a bowl beat the eggs lightly with a pinch of salt and the yogurt.

Lower the heat and add the eggs to the tomatoes, sprinkle with the pepper and cook, tossing often with a wooden spatula until the eggs are just set. Be careful not to overcook the eggs.

Transfer to a shallow bowl and serve warm or at room temperature.  Sprinkle with Feta, if you like, drizzle with fruity olive oil, and add fresh oregano, thyme, or parsley, if you like.

Alternatively, you can spread tablespoons of the strapatsada on toasts and serve as bruschetta.   

VARIATIONS:

Menemen (Turkish Tomato and Pepper Scrambled Eggs)

Sauté 1 red or green bell pepper, seeded and diced, until soft. Add the tomatoes to the pan and proceed as above.

Bruillade à l’Arlésienne (Scrambled Eggs from Arles)

Grate a small zucchini and sauté in 1 tablespoon olive oil until soft. Add a small, minced garlic clove with the tomatoes and proceed as above.

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The sweet beet greens are especially delicious flavored with the tart, avgolemono sauce.

Serves 6

6  whole chicken legs, separated, or a whole cut-up chicken –preferably free range

Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, preferably freshly ground or crushed in a mortar

2  tablespoons ground coriander seeds

1  large onion, coarsely chopped

About 2 cups Chicken Stock or more, as needed

2 1/2  pounds beet greens with stems; separate the stems and cut into 2-3 inch pieces (see NOTE)

1-2  fresh oregano or thyme sprigs (optional) 

AVGOLEMONO SAUCE

About 1 1/2 cups cooking broth from the chicken and beet greens 

2/3 cup white wine

2 large eggs

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more, to taste

1  tablespoon cornstarch

Freshly ground black pepper and Aleppo pepper, to taste 

Chopped fennel fronds or dill 

Prepare the chicken: Season the meat on both sides generously with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with fennel seeds and coriander all over the chicken pieces.

In the deep skillet heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and sauté the chicken pieces on both sides until nicely browned. With a slotted spoon remove the chicken pieces to a platter and keep warm.

Add the onion to the skillet and briefly fry, then pour over the wine and broth and scrape up any caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan.

Arrange the chicken pieces in the pan  and bring to a boil. Half-cover the skillet, turn the heat to medium and cook for about 35 minutes, until the chicken is almost cooked, adding more broth or water, as needed. It should be quite brothy. 

Add the beet stems to the chicken and cook for about 8 minutes, or until tender, then add the beet leaves, toss, and cook for another 4-5 minutes until done to your taste. 

Make the Avgolemono Sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, 3 tablespoons of the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the wine. In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with the remaining wine, then whisk into the egg mixture.

Whisking constantly, slowly pour about 1  1/2 cups of the hot cooking broth, 1/2 cup at a time, into the egg mixture. 

Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and simmer, stirring very gently, until the sauce thickens.

Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding pepper and more lemon juice if you like.

Serve hot, sprinkling with dill.

NOTE: 

Instead of beet greens and stems you can use chard, large, not baby, spinach, or a combination of various greens, as in Yahnera.

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Now that strawberries appeared in the market,  I adapted Darra’s basic recipe for this early spring fruit.

For a 9-inch round cake –or equivalent square, or 1 large or 2 small loaves 

700 grams strawberries, stemmed and sliced, plus a few more for decoration the cake

Olive oil for rubbing the pan

1 cup coarsely chopped almonds

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or kosher salt)

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup raisins

Grand Marnier Liqueur (optional)

Strawberry jam (optional) 

Coarsely chopped pistachios

Place the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F degrees (180 C).

Line with parchment paper the pan (or pans) that you will use for the cake, and lightly rub with olive oil, then sprinkle with half the almonds.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, beat the eggs, sugar and salt on medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Gradually add the flour into the egg mixture, and gently fold with a spatula until just combined and no flour streaks remain. The batter will be quite thick.

Mix the sliced strawberries with the raisins and the rest of the almonds.

Spread half the strawberries in an even, compact layer at the bottom of the pan. Cover with half the batter and use an offset spatula to spread the batter evenly over the fruit. Repeat with the remaining strawberry and batter. Gently tap the pan a few times against the counter to get rid of air bubbles, and transfer to the oven.

Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out almost clean and the top of cake is golden brown.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes, then gently run a knife around the perimeter to loosen and carefully invert the pan on a platter and let cool completely. 

Sprinkle with some liqueur and then spread a layer of strawberry jam over the cake, if you like. Decorate with the reserved strawberries and sprinkle with pistachios before cutting to serve.

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Soups, salads, and frittata get even better with crunchy, toasted bread cubes. We especially love the flavor and slight crunch the croutons from heavy, unshifted flour bread adds to any vegetable in the frittata. 

I slice and cube the leftovers of the mixed-grain, heavy, old-fashioned, wood-fired loaves that we get each week from our village bakery,  toss with olive oil and roast in the oven, until completely dry. When cool I keep in jars. 

It is wonderful added in any bean or vegetable soup, while on the islands of the Cyclades twice-baked bread often adorned the simple fish soups.

In our winter frittatas I often make with our neighbor’s incredible eggs, these delicious mixed-grain croutons complement beautifully the roasted squash omelet/strata that I make.

No recipe needed: for each 3 cups of roasted squash, or any combination of sautéed vegetables, I usually add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of croutons.

I arrange them on a well-oiled skillet that goes to the oven and holds them in one, snuggly layer. 

I then mix 4-6 eggs, depending on their size, with 1 1/2 cups plain yogurt, instead of milk. The tanginess of the yogurt complements the bread and vegetables beautifully. Briefly mix, adding salt and Aleppo pepper flakes and pour it over the vegetables. If I have nice parsley leaves from the garden, I roughly chop them and add to the mix.

I start by frying on the stove, in medium-high, and when it starts to vividly sizzle and brown at the bottom I transfer to the upper part of the oven, heat the broiler, and finish cooking until lightly crisped and golden on the top, about 2-3 minutes

I do not add cheese in the frittata but serve diced feta or goat’s cheese on the side.

Accompanied by a simple salad it is a wonderful lunch or dinner, while any leftovers reheated in a low oven is equally, if not more delicious the nest day…

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Just before Christmas holidays, our friends and next door neighbors sometimes leave Kea to spend the end of the year festivities with their family in Albania, so Costas undertakes his favorite chore: taking care of their hens and cats. 

We wish we could be able to have cats and hens, but, unfortunately, our dog does not permit it…

From the coop every night Costas brings at least five and often seven wonderful eggs, and after a few days we are flooded with an incredibly abundant lot! We enjoy them fried in olive oil, add them to pilafs and risottos, scramble them with whatever vegetable or green we have at hand, and occasionally we made paspala, the traditional Kea winter delicacy.

But mostly we eat them soft-boiled, or in frittatas with grilled squash, onions, peppers, and potatoes. And so, we’ve been using eggs everywhere: we baked quite a few of our favorite cakes, and made a very intensely tart lemon curd too; but still, the eggs keep accumulating in the fridge.

Looking for new sweets that use more than 2-3 eggs, I came across the winter version of Pavlova with Zabaglione Creme, at Saveur. With six eggs needed, almost one day’s crop –the egg whites for the meringue, and the yolks for the sweet-wine flavored cream— the recipe seemed ideal! We made it with poached quince, apples, and raisins, instead of the pineapple, which is not our favorite fruit. The zabaglione crème came out vividly colored, since the yolks of these wonderful eggs are deep orange, but its taste instead of been better than usual, it was far too eggy… We splashed the fruit with plenty of Grand Marnier to compensate, but still, the flavor of the zabaglione was far too strong, something we had not expected.  

We were much more satisfied with the next sweet we made; a very unusual Austrian mushed-up pancake called Kaiserschmarrn (see photo at the top).  We happened to see it served in a documentary about Vienna cafés and looked for the recipe, which we followed. It was simple enough, and we decided to double the number of liqueur-soaked raisins –used Grand Marnier again, instead of the rum the recipe asks for. We hardly ever make pancakes, but this was a very simple endeavor, and the sweet came out wonderful, if not too photogenic…

The moral of the story, I think, is that the very fresh eggs from hens that roam around the fields in the winter are best eaten in savory dishes.

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We like to briefly grill them on a stovetop griddle, on a non-stick pan, simply rubbed with olive oil and simply serve them sprinkled with some local, delicious finishing salt.

See also the  variation with Peppers and Zucchini slices. 

Recently we started combining the incredibly-tasting olive-oil-fried eggs from our neighbor’s hens with the grilled asparagus making a full dish. Elizabeth Minchilli calls this ‘Asparagus Bizmarck’ –probably an Italian term for the dish; she blanches her asparagus instead of grilling them. 

I fry the eggs separately, and only until the white is no longer transparent. If you like to see the correct, Spanish way of frying eggs in olive oil check Jose Andres’ method.  

We like to complement with feta cheese the asparagus and eggs, and of course serve slices of my latest homemade bread alongside.   

The much sought-after white asparagus are cultivated in the north of Greece, and as far as I know are mostly exported in Germany and other parts of Europe.  

To trim the green asparagus simply bend them until they snap. The top is the tender part you would like to grill and the bottom, somewhat tougher is ideal to flavor pasta, risotto, or any broth. Chop and keep in a the freezer until needed. 

My recipe loosely-based on Giada in Italy (episode 5) 

Serves 4

About 1/4 cup fruity olive oil, divided

1 pound thin asparagus trimmed –chop the hard base and freeze, to use in Green Pasta

Salt to taste

4 large eggs

Freshly ground pepper, to taste 

Feta cheese for serving

Wipe the pan with a dish towel and rub with some olive oil.

Add about 3 tablespoons olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Add the asparagus and some salt, cover with parchment paper pressing it to touch the spears and cook for about 5 minutes, lifting the paper and flipping the asparagus with tongs, until they are bright green, cooked through and slightly browned. Divide among your serving plates.

In a non-stick skillet warm 3-4 tablespoons olive oil in medium-high heat and break in the eggs, before the oil starts to sizzle. Cook briefly, dousing the eggs with some of the warm oil with a spoon, until the white is opaque. Lift the cooked eggs carefully with spatulas, hopefully not breaking the yolks.

Serve the eggs over the grilled asparagus, sprinkling with finishing salt and freshly ground pepper, along with feta cheese and slices of fresh bread.  

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Kean women prepare it each winter with leftover scraps of pork and fat, after the traditional slaughtering and butchering of the family pig. In the old days, the bits were heavily salted so that they wouldn’t spoil as they were stored in clay jars to be used much like Maggi cubes –a common European food flavoring– throughout the year. Costas calls paspalas ‘the Kea bacon,’ but unlike bacon it is not smoked and it is already fried when you use it to flavor eggs and other dishes.

Read about Pig Slaughtering on Kea as I had described it at the Atlantic.  

The importance of this rustic flavoring became apparent when I prepared it in the kitchen of Zaytinya—Jose Andres’ Greek and Middle Eastern restaurant, in Washington DC. During my annual January visit, a few years back, we were trying traditional winter dishes from Kea and other Cycladic islands for a pork and xinomavro wine feast, and Chef Michael Costa was immediately taken by paspalas’ intense and versatile flavor. We made several batches, using pieces of locally grown pork that the chef and his sous-chefs butchered in the kitchen. Besides the Kean scrambled eggs–also called ‘paspalas’ –we filled jars with the pork confit for future use. Bonnie Benwick, the former food editor of Washington Post got enamored with it, as well as with the eponymous scrambled eggs from Kea, and  made the dish famous in her column!

HOW TO MAKE PASPALAS: 

Scraps, bits and pieces of pork meat, leftover from the more serious butchering of the pork–preferably pieces from the breast– cut into small pieces.

It is important that the pieces have enough fat on them, or that additional pieces of fat will be added. Roughly 50-60 % fat to meat.

Salt, Black pepper, Cumin, All-spice

Plenty of fresh thyme, or winter savory if you happen to be on a Greek island (!)

Place the diced pork in a thick-bottomed sauté pan and add water just to half cover. Bring to a boil in medium heat, add salt, black pepper, a good pinch of cumin, all spice and a few sprigs of fresh thyme –stand in for our very fragrant winter savory.

Cook for about 30 minutes or more, until the meat is cooked through, and very tender. You may need to add a little more water as needed.

Increase the heat to high and cook until all water is evaporated.

At this point, I found that it is easier to transfer part of the pork and its juices to a smaller, truly non-stick sauté pan, or deep skillet and brown in batches.

As the pork fries in its fat it splatters and sticks to the bottom of any ordinary pan. If it does stick, transfer the pieces to a non-stick skillet and de-glaze the pan with some water. Add the flavorful bits to the skillet with the rest of the pork to sizzle in the fat, otherwise you will lose some of the flavor.

Fry the piece of pork (preferably in batches, so that you can have more control and less splattering) until they get a nice brown, adding more thyme and taste correcting the flavor with more salt and/or pepper, as needed.
Fill jars and make sure the meat is covered with fat on top. If when it cools you realize that there is not a layer of fat at the top, melt some lard and pour a thin film over the paspalas.

Refrigerated, the Kean pork confit can be kept for up to 2 months, but you can also freeze it, if you want to keep it longer.

See the Recipe: PASPALAS from Kea: Preserved Pork and Tomato Scrambled Eggs

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Many older Greeks share the experience; I guess now pizza –ordered out or microwaved– has replaced our beloved tiganites patates (fried potatoes) which need dedicated mothers to peel, cut, and fry the potatoes from scratch, since the frozen kind was never an option…

Shallow frying any kind of vegetables, meatballs, or fish in olive oil is the tradition for home cooks around the Mediterranean. My mother was re-using the frying olive oil 2-3 times, passing it through a fine sieve after frying the potatoes. She was keeping it in a separate bottle, to have it handy for the next time she had to fry potatoes, zucchini or meatballs. Of course, after frying meatballs or fish the oil had to be discarded. My mother sometimes added pieces of dried bread or leftover rice to soak up this frying oil and feed the semi-stray cats that roamed around our vast garden in the outskirts of the city, where I grew up.

I was very pleasantly surprised when I found this humble childhood comfort food served at the prestigious Paco Meralgo tapas restaurant in Barcelona. Called “ous de pages ferrats” (meaning ‘fried farm eggs’ in Catalan) the dish was exactly like our favorite childhood dinner; only it had two, instead of just one eggs with the fried potatoes. My friend, the renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés has demonstrated on US television his special technique for frying each egg in olive oil so that the white is cooked and firm, but the yolk stays wonderfully soft and runny.

Apparently, Catalans as all Spaniards share our affinity for olive-oil-fried eggs, as it is obvious from the famous ‘Old Woman Frying Eggs,’ Diego Velázquez’ early 17th c. painting. Like the old lady in the painting, Stelios Trilyrakis at his Dounias tavern, fries his incredible potatoes in a clay pot over live fire. No wonder people from all over the world brave the long, winding, and often harrowing road to drive to the village Drakona, high in the mountains of western Crete, not just for the potatoes but for all the delicious age-old traditional dishes Stelios prepares.

Fried potatoes are always my favorite comfort food, and when, ten years ago, my dear friend, the famous chef and author Deborah Madison asked me to send her my favorite recipe for her book ‘What we Eat when we Eat Alone,’ I described my beloved olive-oil-fried potatoes which I often accompany with a simple sauce of yogurt with some spicy Dijon mustard these days; my deep-flavored fried eggs, usually from our neighbor’s hens, I prefer to enjoy with toasted slices of my home-made bread.

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Agristada and avgolemono both cleverly use eggs beaten with lemon juice to create an emulsion which thickens the cooking juices, much in the way the French use tangy crème fraîche.

Avgolemono is used with meat, fish, or just with vegetables. Fish soup avgolemono is usually cooked during the cold winter months, while lahano-dolmades (stuffed cabbage leaves) is one of the most iconic winter dishes. Besides the comforting chicken avgolemono soup,  magiritsa, is the festive Easter soup prepared with the spring lamb’s innards, flavored with scallions, and dill, and finished with tangy avgolemono.

The traditional, elegant avgolemono is often abused in restaurants where flour is used to thicken and stabilize it so that it can be endlessly re-heated.

Meat with greens, artichokes and/or other vegetables is sometimes called ‘fricassée,’ from the French chicken dish whose white, flour-thickened sauce has neither eggs nor lemons.

Here on Kea I learned to make avgolemono with the winter wild greens that are cooked with pork, while in the spring it complements the local, thorny artichokes that we braise with fresh fava pods and finish with an extra lemony avgolemono prepared using the wonderful, deep-yellow yolks of my neighbor’s eggs.

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This is a delicious festive treat! Use the egg yolks to make Pots de Crème!  

For a 10-inch round cake

8 egg whites (from medium-size eggs)

1 cup melted butter (or mixture of butter and olive oil)

1 cup confectioner’s sugar, plus more to sprinkle the cake

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (100 grams, 3 1/4 ounces)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/4 cup ground almonds or walnuts

Grated zest of one orange or lemon

Line a 10-inch pan with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the butter and 1 cup confectioner’s sugar until well mixed. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, almonds of walnuts and the zest. Beat the flour mixture into the egg mixture, until fully incorporated. The mixture will be quite runny.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a rack for about 15 minutes, and carefully invert and peel away the parchment paper. Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar.

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