Long Beach Grecian Festival by the Sea Cookbook

Egg-lemon Sauce (Avgolemeno) Stuffed Grape Leave with Egg-lemon Sauce Egg-lemon Sauce (Avgolemono Sauce)    2 cups hot chicken stock 2 medium- lemons, juiced  2 eggs, room temperature     Pour 2 cups of the reserved stock into a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together eggs yolks and lemon juice. Whisk eggs until frothy and slowly fold into yolks/lemon mixture. Pour about ¼ cup of hot stock at a time into the bowl with eggs and lemon juice. Whisk vigorously for a few minutes before adding another ¼ cup of hot stock and continue until all stock is added. Once finished transfer stock/lemon/egg mixture back to a medium sauce pan and continue mixing over medium heat. May add more lemon juice if a stronger lemon taste is desired. Prevent eggs from curdling 1. Eggs and lemons need to be room temperature. 2. Slowly add hot broth, while continuously whisking. 3. Whisk, wh...

  Stuffed Grape Leaves  Dinner Style Cook time: 1 hour Prep: 1 hour Makes: 75-85 leaves   3 pounds 73% lean ground beef Salt and pepper, to taste 1 cup long grain white rice Water, about 1/4-1/2 cup 2 packages dried onion soup mix 1 16-ounce jar grape leaves 2 tablespoons dried mint 1 lemon       Dolmathes are served either as an appetizer using a teaspoon of meat-rice mixture or made into larger dolmathes for dinner filled with a tablespoon of meat-rice mixture drizzled with avgolemeno sauce.   Thoroughly mix ground beef, rice, onion soup mix, water and mint. Add some water (about ¼–½ cup, to desired consistency). Line the bottom of an 8-quart pot with grape leaves to prevent the stuff grape leaves from burning.   Cut stems off grape leaves. Place glossy side down with vein side sho...

A Feta Story As a child, I remember how much I loved going to the Long Beach Greek store with my mom, grandma and great-aunt.   We always bought feta and, of course, we had to try it first.  Mr. P. would give us samples to try before buying.  He would always slice off a very nice piece for me to try and wait for my nod of approval.  I felt so grown-up.  Mom would drive into Long Beach almost every week from Orange County to go to the Greek store because our local big box grocery stores didn’t carry many ethnic items, such as feta, at that time. This was the 1960’s. Now you find feta everywhere which is a good thing, at least for me, since our local Greek store unfortunately closed many years ago. Today, everyone is familiar with serving a green salad with feta sprinkled on top of it.  When airlines use to serve you a meal as part of a regular economy ticket, I remember returning from a work trip in the 1980’s and mentioning to my mother about how feta ...

  Yogurt Cucumber Dip     Bake: none Prep: 15 min Serves: 6   Everything tastes better with tzatziki. We’re not kidding. Tzatziki is great as a dip with bread or pita chips, as a side with fish or meat, or topping off a baked potato. Tzatziki is a healthy alternative to dips with mayonnaise.   1 large cucumber 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped 1 cup plain 5% Greek whole-milk yogurt* 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 2 teaspoons olive oil Salt and pepper to taste   Peel and slice cucumber lengthwise and use a spoon to scrape out any seeds. Grate the cucumber and place in a bowl with 1/2 tablespoon salt for 30 minutes. Drain cucumber and squeeze out as much water as possible. Whisk together cucumber and yogurt. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Best served chilled.   ...