It may not be the star attraction, but eggs definitely play the key supporting role in Greek cookery. Whether it’s the basis of a sauce, the binding ingredient of keftethes, the filling of a generous pita, or the main element of the custard in desserts, the unassuming egg almost always makes an appearance in Greek food.
A staple of Greek cuisine, the humble egg makes its way into traditional and simple cookery because of the way of life in the Hellenic Republic. Akin to a diet rich in vegetables, thanks to living off the land, the same thing applies with eggs. Nearly everyone that lives in a village has access to chickens, rearing chickens for the protein of the animal, but also mainly for the production of eggs. Being able to live in this sustainable way is even more critical today for people in Greece. Due to this, the simple egg is used in nearly every dish, and provides endless amounts of nutrients to people. Even though in Australia we may not have access to going into our backyard and grabbing a couple of eggs to whip up lunch from our pet chooks, the majority of those involved in Greek cooking always have a spare carton in the pantry. But to get the authentic village flavour in Greek cooking, always use organic farmers eggs – the flavour, the colour and the richness of texture can’t be replicated. And now with the onset of farmers’ markets all over the country, and the ability to buy organic and free range eggs in the supermarket, there really isn’t anything stopping you from buying good quality produce.
Eggs in Greek cuisine do play a humble role. Some of the more popular dishes in the village are nourishing scrambled eggs with either fresh zucchini or grated tomato or even cheese. That alone made up some of the greatest meals I had when I visited Greece, so simple, and fresh and nutritious. Being so simple in flavours, Greek cooking tends to be made up of one or two ingredients, and a simple scrambled egg dish – that is consumed for lunch with freshly baked bread – can be made with whatever is available in the garden and seasonal. Omelettes and frittatas are also very popular and are made with home-grown potatoes and local sausage, similar to Greece’s Mediterranean neighbours such as Italy and Spain.
While France has bearnaise and hollandaise – with both sauces incidently deriving from eggs – Greece has avgolemono. The simple egg and lemon sauce accompanies many dishes but is most famous for having its roots firmly planted in chicken soup – one of the best comfort foods of the Greek cuisine. Apart from chicken soup, avgolemono sauce is also used in fish soup to give a thick, silky finish.
Avgolemono as a sauce features strongly in many traditional dishes such as giouvarlakia, fricassee and dolmathes (both vine leaf rolls and cabbage rolls). The sauce is made solely of egg and lemon and is beaten and heated together with a broth until it thickens. When it has become thick, the sauce is then added to whichever dish you are creating. Avgolemono is also used in the Easter soup magirista – an offal soup which is traditionally eaten at midnight on Easter Saturday and is the dish that breaks the fast.
Easter is probably the only time in Greek culture that eggs play the main role. Every table on Easter Sunday is adorned with dyed red eggs, and more often than not, you will find a large red egg in the middle of a tsoureki – Greek Easter bread. Red eggs are one of the most symbolic of foods to be prepared for the Greek Orthodox Easter. The dyed eggs represent the blood of Christ and the rebirth of Christ. Traditionally, red eggs are prepared on Holy Thursday, but can also be prepared on Easter Saturday. Other coloured dyes are available for use such as green and blue. You can also buy stickers for the eggs as decorations or create your own using leaves and cloth.
Many traditional Greek dishes need the use of eggs as a binding agent and are used heavily in the bechamel sauce that finishes off baked dishes such as pastitsio, moussaka and papoutsakia but also in kefthethes and biftekia. And pites – from spanakopita to tiropita – just wouldn’t be the same without the eggs giving them the texture and becoming the binding agent needed to create these traditional pies.
Creamy Greek desserts such as bougatsa and galaktobouriko are completely reliant on eggs to create the rich silky custard of the cake. All tea cakes, such as orange and lemon, that are staples in the Greek village house for afternoon tea, also use eggs as the binding agent to bring all the ingredients together. A traditional treat that would be made for the children of the village was htipito avgo. Put simply, it is made by beating a raw egg with several spoonfuls of sugar in a cup. The result is a luscious, creamy breakfast, eaten with bread and milk.