If you like your greens, this is a dish that you can never have enough of. Endives have a mildly bitter taste and marry perfectly with the egg-lemon sauce. The addition of green onions and leeks gives the dish the required sweetness. If you like celery, you can add a bunch, and it really enhances the dish.
Ingredients 800 gr leg of pork cut up in pieces 1 – 1 ½ kilos endives (frisee) (or 1 kilo endives and ½ kilo celery) 5 – 6 spring onions chopped 1 leek chopped (tender green part included) ½ cup olive oil ½ cup parsley chopped ¼ cup dill chopped 1 teaspoon corn flour diluted in 2 – 3 tablespoonfuls cold water 2 egg yolks Juice of one large lemon (more if you like) Salt and pepper
Directions
Wash the meat and pat it dry. Place the oil in a large bottomed pot and when it is hot add the meat and sauté it lightly for five to six minutes. Add the spring onions and the leek and sauté them for another 5 minutes. Add 1 – 2 cups of hot water, some salt and pepper, cover the pot and let it simmer for about 1 hour. Check to see when the meat is done.
In the meantime, prepare the endives and the celery if you are using. Throw away any outer, wilted and yellow leaves, and cut off the roots. Depending on the size, you can cut the leaves in two or three pieces. Do the same with the celery. Wash the greens very well, so that all the dirt and sand in between the leaves are removed.
When the meat is done, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon. Turn the heat up to high and start adding the chicory and the celery in the pot. As the greens start boiling they wilt and their volume is reduced so you will be able to fit everything in your pot. You just turn them over as you add the new batch, so that the wilted greens come to the surface and the new ones go to the bottom of the pan, so that they can wilt in their turn. Add 1 cup of water and the parsley lower the heat and simmer the greens for about ½ an hour. Taste to see if they are done. Add salt and pepper and the dill. Stir and see that there is about a cup and a half of liquid left. Return the meat to the pot to heat it up.
Prepare the egg-lemon sauce. Dissolve the corn flour in 2 – 3 tablespoonfuls cold water. Place the egg yolks in a bowl and beat lightly. Add the lemon juice while beating and the diluted corn flour. Then, with a ladle, add some hot liquid from the pot to the eggs while beating them, and finally pour the contents of your bowl back into the pot. Turn off the heat. Shake the pot so that the sauce is distributed evenly. Do not boil. Just leave the pot on the warm hot plate shaking the pot once or twice more and serve.
Some feta cheese and fresh, crusty bread are a must.
Enjoy!