Cyprus - Yourvarlakia Avgolemono

There were lots of delicious looking foods to pick from for Cyprus but I couldn't resist this meatball soup dish. It's perfect for the horrible cold weather we've been having lately.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef or lamb

1 small onion

3 eggs
1/3 cup rice
4 tablespoons parsley
1 teaspoon mint
salt
fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup rice flour 

5 cups stock
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice 

Put the meat (I chose lamb), 1 egg, rice, chopped onion, parsley, salt, pepper and mint in a bowl. You can arrange it beautifully like me or just throw it in there. 

Mix everything together with your hands until it's all really well blended. That's what I did then had to quickly wash my hands to take this next picture.

Now it's time to make some meatballs so get your hands back in the bowl. Take a small amount of the mixture and form it into a ball. Then dust it in the rice flour (which you've already placed in a bowl for such an occasion. You're smart like that.) and set it aside. Repeat until you've used up all the mixture.

Make up the stock in a large pan and add the meatballs to it. Add the butter and then simmer for 1 hour.

Ten minutes or so before the hour is up start on making the broth.  Beat the two remaining eggs until they're light and frothy.

Now add the lemon juice and about a cup of the stock from the pan to the eggs a bit at a time so they don't curdle. Beat after adding each bit until you have a light broth consistency.

Remove the meatballs from the pan and place in a bowl. Now add the egg broth to the pan and simmer for two minutes to cook the eggs. Stir constantly.

Spoon the broth over the meatballs and garnish with some more chopped parsley. Ta-da, it's done!

Easily the best thing about this dish was the smell in the kitchen while the meatballs were simmering. I couldn't wait to try them. The taste was great too. The broth was really light and flavourful which went really well with the meatballs making them moist and soft. I was wary of adding raw rice to the meatball mix but after simmering the rice was cooked perfectly and was a nice addition that stopped the meatballs being too heavy. It's a lovely warming winter dish.