Almonds, Walnuts, and Garlic

One of the the most interesting ways to cook meat or poultry is with a garlic sauce. Walnuts are frequently used to thicken garlic sauces, but in some recipes, almonds are used instead. In others, the walnuts and garlic are pounded together in a mortar, much like the traditional Skordalia, or Garlic Sauce, then lightened with chicken stock. The resulting sauce is poured over boiled chicken and the whole dish is baked briefly. In other versions, soaked stale bread is used to thicken the sauce instead of flour, and the garlic is first mixed with vinegar to make skordostoumbi, a light garlicky vinegar sauce that is used to flavor many dishes all over Macedonia. I have even found a recipe from Agrinio (in the central mainland) in which the sauce was flavored with tomatoes and sugar because tomatoes and vinegar made the sauce much too acidic.