makes about 2½ cups (600 ml)
The inspiration for this sauce goes back many years to the first experience I had dining at Kefi, chef Michael Psilakis’s first Greek restaurant in New York. He served us a range of crudo, one of which was tuna paired ingeniously with Greek vyssino, the sour cherry preserves usually reserved for a sweet pick-me-up over afternoon coffee in a typical Greek home. The pairing catapulted me out of my comfort zone, pushing me beyond the purist’s probity into a boundless horizon of fearless new uses for traditional old recipes. And a barbecue sauce was thus born. I make it every summer in batches, to be brushed over lamb and goat chops, burgers, and eggplant on the grill. You can find the Greek sour cherry spoon sweet and sour cherry syrup in Greek food shops or online. You can also substitute other sour cherry syrup.
3 tablespoons extra-virgin Greek olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
⅔ cup (160 ml) tomato paste
4 cups (1 L) dry red wine
1 cup (240 ml) vyssino syrup or other sour cherry syrup
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and shallots and cook until soft and lightly colored, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in the garlic. Add the cumin, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for a minute or two to release the flavors of the spices.
Add the tomato paste and stir. Add the wine, vyssino syrup, mustard, and vinegar and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Simmer the barbecue sauce over low heat until it thickens and has reduced by one-third; it should be the consistency of ketchup.
Remove from the heat and either transfer to the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth or puree directly in the pot with an immersion blender until smooth. Pass the barbecue sauce through a fine-mesh strainer and let cool. If it is too thin, return it to the saucepan after it’s been strained and cook to thicken it further, then let cool before storing. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
No doubt the most sophisticated sauce in the Greek kitchen is avgolemono, the egg-lemon liaison that calls for tempering a mixture of eggs and lemon juice with hot broth, which results in a creamy, foamy, thick, soul-satisfying addition to soups and stews. It has a long history in the eastern Mediterranean, perhaps tracing its roots to the agristada or salsa blanca of the Sephardic Jews who settled en masse in Greece in the fifteenth century, during the Spanish Inquisition.
There are several traditional ways to make it, either with yolks, whole eggs, or separated yolks and whipped whites, each resulting in liaisons of varying density and thickness. There are also a few delicious contemporary variations, which call for additions such as saffron, wine, and other seasonings. You may also use the juice of bitter oranges, or even verjuice, in place of the lemon juice; both are old renditions of this dish, rehatched in the hands of contemporary chefs.
One thing to keep in mind when making any of the following versions is that the eggs should always be at room temperature. With room-temperature eggs, the whites and yolks combine easier when whisking. This means that the eggs will disperse more evenly into the mixture. You can soak cold eggs in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes to bring them down to room temperature. Instead of whisking by hand, you can mix the avgolemono in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl using the whisk attachment of an immersion blender.
