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- Path: decwrl!recipes
- From: kyrimis@Princeton.EDU (Kriton Kyrimis)
- Newsgroups: alt.gourmand
- Subject: RECIPE: Spanakopita
- Message-ID: <13981@decwrl.DEC.COM>
- Date: 15 Jul 88 05:31:53 GMT
- Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
- Distribution: alt
- Organization: Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- Lines: 102
- Approved: reid@decwrl.dec.com
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- Copyright (C) 1988 USENET Community Trust
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-
- .RH MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE SPANAKOPITA-2 M "3 Dec 87" 1988
- .RZ "SPANAKOPITA" "Greek spinach and feta cheese pie"
- This recipe is from a greek cookbook, with my modifications and the addition
- of my mother's secret ingredient\(emleeks.
- ``fillo'' or ``fyllo'' is the greek word for ``leaf''.
- .IH "about 20 pieces"
- .IG "1 lb" "fillo dough" "500 g"
- .IG "\(12 cup" "olive oil" "120 ml"
- .IG "3 lb" "spinach" "1.5 kg"
- (5 packages, if you use frozen spinach)
- .IG "\(12 cup" "unsalted butter" "100 g"
- .IG "1" "medium onion,"
- chopped.
- .IG "3" "leeks,"
- washed and chopped.
- .IG "1 lb" "feta cheese" "500 g"
- .IG "5" "eggs"
- .IG "1 cup" "breadcrumbs" "100 g"
- .IG "1 cup" "milk" "250 ml"
- .IG "1 tsp" "salt" "5 ml"
- .IG "" "pepper"
- .PH
- .SK 1
- If you are using fresh spinach, wash it, dip it for a minute or two in boiling
- water to blanch it, and then chop it. Drain the spinach and squeeze most of
- the water out of it.
- .SK 2
- Wash thoroughly and chop the white part of the leeks. Peel and chop the
- onion. Saut\o'e\(aa' the chopped leeks and onion in the butter.
- .SK 3
- Add the spinach, salt and pepper. Mix everything together and simmer
- for 20 minutes.
- .SK 4
- While the spinach is cooking, grate the feta cheese (I use a food processor).
- Alternatively, you can crumble it into small chunks.
- .SK 5
- Remove the spinach from heat and add the cheese, eggs (beaten), breadcrumbs
- and milk. Mix everything together and set aside.
- .SK 6
- Grease a square baking pan with a little olive oil. Take one sheet of dough
- and place it on the bottom of the pan towards one of the corners, in such a
- way that the dough sticks out a little from two of the sides of the pan.
- Brush the sheet with olive oil. Repeat this step until you have used
- about two thirds of the dough, alternating corners and always brushing
- each sheet of dough with olive oil.
- .SK 7
- Pour the spinach mixture into the pan. Level it, and fold in the sides of the
- assembled crust. Brush the dough with olive oil.
- .SK 8
- Take one sheet of dough and place it on top of the pie, this time without
- any bias towards any of the corners. Brush the sheet with olive oil. Repeat
- this step until you have used all the remaining dough, always brushing each
- sheet with olive oil.
- .SK 9
- Gently tuck the edges of the top sheets of dough under the sides of the pie.
- Brush the top with olive oil. Using a sharp knife cut the top of the pie
- as if you were cutting it to serve it, but don't go all the way to the bottom.
- Sprinkle the pie with
- .AB "1 Tbsp"
- of water and bake it at
- .TE 350 175
- for 45 minutes.
- .SK 10
- Let the pie cool, and serve.
- .NX
- I find that frozen spinach works wonderfully for this recipe. Also,
- it's cheaper and somewhat easier to prepare.
- .PP
- Unless you work quickly when assembling the dough layers, the unused pieces
- of dough will dry out. Until you become nimble with this process, you can
- cover the unused dough pieces with a damp dishcloth to prevent them from
- drying out while you fumble with the construction of the pie.
- .PP
- The pie keeps well out of the refrigerator for a few days and can
- (indeed, some claim must) be eaten at room temperature.
- .PP
- Because of the way the pie is constructed, pieces cut from the corners
- and sides of the pan are particularly crunchy, and a lot of people
- consider them the best part of the pie. This suits me just fine, because
- I like the middle pieces which have more filling!
- .PP
- The original recipe called for twice the amount of olive oil, but I find
- that I don't need that much.
- .SH RATING
- .I Difficulty:
- moderate.
- .I Time:
- 1 hour preparation, 45 minutes baking.
- .I Precision:
- approximate measurement OK.
- .WR
- Kriton Kyrimis
- Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
- kyrimis@princeton.edu allegra!princeton!kyrimis
-