082Pork with celery in egg-lemon

Method

Traditional winter avgolemono braise. Serve warm with plenty of crusty sourdough bread to mop up the sauce.

You will need

• heavy casserole or Dutch oven
• colander
• wire whisk
• tongs

1. Heat the olive oil in a wide heavy casserole over medium-high heat and brown the pork pieces on all sides until golden. 10 min Ready when: meat is nicely browned with caramelised edges
2. Add the chopped onion and sliced spring onions to the pan, reducing heat to medium, and cook until softened and translucent. 5 min Ready when: onions are soft and sweet smelling
3. Pour in the boiling water, season with half the salt and pepper, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and braise over low heat for 50 minutes. 50 min Ready when: pork is nearly tender
4. Meanwhile, blanch the cut celery stalks in a pot of salted boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain thoroughly. 5 min Ready when: celery turns bright green and slightly pliable
5. Add the blanched celery, celery leaves, and remaining salt to the pork stew, cover, and simmer gently until both the meat and celery are meltingly tender. 20 min Ready when: fork pierces celery stems easily and broth is rich
6. Remove the casserole from the heat and allow the bubbling to stop for 3 minutes, leaving about 250 ml of braising liquid in the pan. 3 min Ready when: pan is completely off the boil
7. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl until light and airy, then gradually whisk in the lemon juice. 2 min Ready when: mixture is pale and combined
8. Ladle out two scoops of warm pan liquid and whisk it drop by drop into the egg mixture to temper it gently. 2 min Ready when: avgolemono feels comfortably warm
9. Pour the tempered mixture over the pork and celery, shaking the casserole in two hands to coat everything evenly without using a spoon, and rest for 5 minutes before serving. 5 min Ready when: sauce is creamy, glossy and clinging to the meat

Tap a step to tick it off.

Make ahead and storing

Braise the pork and celery up to a day ahead; do not add the avgolemono until reheating the stew gently just before dining.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days; reheat on low heat very gently to avoid splitting.

Substitutions

• celeriac (celery root) for bunch of celery with plentiful leaves. Peeled and cubed celeriac (selinoriza) is a traditional and delicious substitute.

Common mistakes

• Adding the celery raw directly into the pot without blanching.. Unblanched celery can impart an excessively bitter, grassy flavour to the delicate pan juices.
• Stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon after pouring in the avgolemono.. Stirring can break the delicate, tender celery stems; swirling the pan by its handles distributes the sauce cleanly.

Regional variants

• In some Aegean islands, celeriac root is preferred over leaf celery, cut into thick batons.
• A tomato-braised variation exists in Peloponnesian villages, omitting the egg-lemon liaison entirely.

About the dish

A cornerstone of the traditional Greek winter table, pork with celery is especially revered as an old-fashioned Christmas Day dish across mainland Greece and the Aegean, predating the modern adoption of roast turkey. Greek cooks traditionally favour wild or leaf celery (selino) with strong aromatic leaves, though cultivated stalk celery or celery root is widely used. The bitter, herbal notes of the celery temper the rich pork fat, tied together by a sharp, glossy avgolemono sauce.

Found in all of Greece. Cooked for christmas, winter, sunday lunch.

Cousins elsewhere

• Terbiyeli kereviz (Turkish). A classic Ottoman stew of celeriac or celery braised with meat and finished with an egg-and-lemon liaison (terbiye).

Nutrition per serving (estimate)

630 kcal · protein 49.4 g · fat 43.2 g (saturated 12.4 g) · carbohydrate 10 g (sugars 4.5 g) · fibre 3.5 g · sodium 1112 mg

An estimate (summed from ingredient estimates) that varies with the exact ingredients. It is not dietary advice.

Written fresh by Epikouria editors from general culinary tradition. Recipe by the Epikouria editors. Classic mainland Greek festive winter cookery, typical of Christmas home tables..