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Kremena Koutsoukou

Last day of the 2009 and rich preparations for the festive table. Last chance for grocery shopping as well.

As usual before the holidays it is difficult to walk and check out the products at your own paste at the central market of Athens Varvakios. You can hear cheers from the manufacturers for the best and most delicious products. Traders have put out their best products and as you can guess the last-minute shopping can be quite profitable.

The variety of meat is rich. Greek beef varies between €5 and €8 per kilo, of course, depending on what you need - rump, fillet or other. Turkeys and chickens can be bought at a price around €3, depending on whether you choose local or imported products (imports are mainly from Italy). A promotion offers you two chickens for €5. Tasty lamb brought from Agrinio and Naxos is sold for €8 and sausages from Lamia are €7, 50. Greek pork cutlets with bone cost €4.

Except for meat the Varvakios market offers fruits and vegetables, spices and olives. Some traders even advise you how to prepare a delicious meal from the products you bought from them. This way they help hosts on what to cook.

If you are still not sure about what to cook, you can take advantage of our proposal for a lamb with lemon - pepper sauce.

Ingredients for 4 portions:

1 round of lamp

2 onions
4 tablespoons of olive oil
3 lemons (squeezed)
2 spoons of flour
Pepper, celery (leaves)  

Preparation:

Debone the meat and cut it into cubes. Cut the celery in large pieces. Put the meat in a pot and add the lemon juice, celery and two cups of water. Leave over low heat and monitor. Once the meat is cooked put the olive oil. Remove from the heat and finish preparing the sauce by adding flour and mixing. The meat is served hot with garnish of your choice. Our proposal is for arugula salad with roasted peppers. Dietitians recommend this dish hot and claim that it is extremely rich in protein, phosphorus, zinc and sodium. And if you cook the meat without oil (lamp allows it) it will save you up to 540 calories.