I have to admit, I have a certain soft spot for Greece. It is difficult to say why, perhaps a warm climate (I noticed such a weakness for other warm countries, more eastern, though), perhaps a bright, emotional flavor of this country. In general, there is something attractive in this ancient culture, and of course the ancient Greek outfits, sandals and hairstyles. Where can we get away from philosophers and mathematicians. All this has a lasting impact on our modern life, and envelops Greece with some kind of romance. What can we say about Greek cuisine. Despite the fact that Greek cuisine has a lot in common with other cuisines of the south, such as French, Italian, Balkan and Middle Eastern cuisine, there are quite a few differences.
The most characteristic and ancient element of the Greek diet is olive oil, which is present in almost all dishes.
Greek cuisine uses herbs and spices much more than other Mediterranean cuisines. Wild herbs, known for their smell and taste, as well as their medicinal properties, are also widely popular among the Greeks.
Other popular ingredients include Messinia-grown olives, feta cheese, grape leaves, zucchini and yogurt. Desserts are dominated by honey and nuts.
Before proceeding directly to cooking, I want to say a few more words and the ingredients of what we will cook, as a result we will get such an informative article - a recipe. So to speak, food for the body and mind.))
spinach, - an annual herbaceous plant from the amaranth family, bred in gardens as a vegetable. Probably originally from Persia.
Spinach contains iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamins A, C and E, antioxidants and folic acid. Spinach has been around since the 6th century and is used in almost every cuisine in the world. And no wonder - it is useful, combined with different products and easy to grow. It is believed that the birthplace of spinach is Persia. It was sold even in the Middle Ages - fresh, or boiled and compressed into balls. In the 16th century, several varieties of spinach were already grown, cooked with sugar and used as a laxative.
Winter spinach leaves are larger, dark green compared to summer varieties of lighter shades. Young spinach can be eaten raw in salads and sauces, while older, coarser leaves can be steamed, sautéed, and stewed.
Filo dough, Fyllo, Yufka (Turkish), Greek φύλλο, - unleavened dough made from flour, water and salt, very thinly rolled or stretched. It is used for strudels, baklava, bannitas.
The Greek word Phyllon means "leaf". Layers of dough can be as thin as paper or a few millimeters thick. Phyllo dough is widely used in Greek and Turkish cuisines in both sweet and savory dishes. In Turkish cuisine, pastries made from this dough are called borek or boregi, in Albanian cuisine - byrek, and in Austrian-German-Hungarian cuisine, the dough is called blatterteig (strudel is baked from it). Paper-thin filo sheets contain less fat than all other types of dough. While cooking, each layer is brushed with melted butter or olive oil to achieve a crunchy result.
And so, the pie itself. (Finally).
Phyllo dough is sold in stores, but it is not so easy to find. If you still managed to do it, congratulations! If not, get dressed to tinker. I will describe one of the recipes (there are many) that I used. It is the most popular, but in terms of the quality of the test and the convenience of working with it, I cannot yet compare it with others, unfortunately I did not have time.
For the dough you need:
- 2.5 cups of premium flour;
- 1 glass of water;
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil;
- A pinch of salt.
Mix everything, replace the dough, wrap in cling film, put in the refrigerator.
According to the time the test is in the refrigerator, many sources disagree, someone writes that one hour is enough, someone that at least 8 hours. I did this and that and did not really feel the difference, maybe in another recipe it will be more pronounced. In general, in order not to rack your brains, it is better to make the dough in the evening and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
And here the fun begins! The dough must be taken out at least an hour, and preferably two hours before cooking, so that it becomes at room temperature. If it is cold, it will not be elastic. The second rule, this dough cannot be left in the air, it dries instantly, and the third, layers of stretched dough cannot be stacked on top of each other for storage, even sprinkled with starch or flour, they will still stick together and all the work will go down the drain.
Now that all precautions have been taken, you can roll out the dough.
We divide it into several parts. Then we roll it out a little with a rolling pin (it doesn’t roll out much, because it turns out like rubber, but we still do it so that we get a uniform cake), then we put a towel on the table and on the towel we begin to stretch the adze with our hands. We start from the middle, when it is thin in the middle, put it on a towel and stretch it along the edges. Keep stirring until the dough is completely translucent! I do this, I put my hand with my wrist up, I lower my fingers a little down, it turns out a half-open fist, I put (hang) the dough on top and stretch it with my other hand. Maybe someone else is more comfortable.
This is how this magic dough is actually made.
Of course, the biggest difficulty is stretching it, but if you motivate yourself with a delicious pie, everything is not so difficult.
Let's finally get to the cake.
For the pie:
- 300 grams of fresh spinach;
- Butter 2 tbsp. l. to fry the filling and still need melted butter to lubricate the dough layers, I needed a little less than half a pack, it all depends on your economy.)
- 1 large onion finely chopped;
- 350 grams of feta cheese;
- 1 bunch of green onions finely chopped;
- A bunch of parsley and a bunch of finely chopped dill;
- ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg;
- 50 grams of toasted pine nuts (I did not find them at home, so I did without them).
- Phyllo dough. The amount depends on the form in which you bake and the thickness of which you stretch it, I needed all the dough from the previous recipe (this is about 800 grams, although the basic recipe says half as much, but the shape is smaller there, in general, see for yourself).
Wash spinach. Put in a large saucepan, DO NOT FILL WITH WATER (!), The water that remains on the leaves is enough. Cover and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes until spinach wilts. Squeeze a little, cut. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a frying pan, add onion and fry for 5 minutes until soft, then add spinach, feta, onion, herbs and nutmeg. Season and set aside.
Melt the butter, grease the mold with it.
For lubrication, I use a brush with natural bristles bought at a hardware store.
Cover the rest of the oil with a film so that it does not dry out.
Cover the bottom and sides with sheets of adze filo overlapping each other, brush with oil and cover again, and grease again. And so we put 4-5 layers (about half the dough).
Then spread the filling on top of the layers of dough. Lay layers of dough-butter on top until the adze runs out.
Further, some suggest cutting the pie, because the finished filo dough is quite difficult to cut. But I do not recommend doing this, because the precious juice is lost, it is better to suffer later and get an excellent taste.
If you have pine nuts, it's time to sprinkle them on the cake. And we send it to the oven preheated to 180 degrees. The cake takes approximately 45 minutes to bake. But everyone has different ovens, so you need to look at baking the crust. It should be golden in color.
That's all! The pie is ready. It can be eaten both cold and hot, it is amazing either way.
- For the sorrel pie, you will need Phyllo dough, it can be prepared in advance at home (recipe in the Baking / Dough section) or purchased at the store. Peel and cut the onion into small pieces, wash and chop the green onion. Peel the garlic and chop very finely with a knife.
- Fresh spinach should be washed and dried, cut into small pieces, frozen - thawed and carefully squeezed out of the liquid. Pour 3-4 tablespoons into the pan. vegetable oil and put chopped onions with garlic, fry them over low heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Then add chopped parsley, green onions to the pan, mix and cook the filling until soft for a couple more minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat, cover with a lid and leave to cool completely.
- Rub the cottage cheese through a sieve into a bowl, add a raw egg, about half a tsp. salt and grind until smooth. Drive the second egg into the curd mass and grind again. Cut the feta into very small pieces, add to the curd mass and mix.
- Combine the cooled stewed spinach with the curd mass and mix well. Preheat the oven to 180C, prepare a baking dish about 25 * 25 cm. Place a sheet of dough in the form, grease it with a thin layer of melted butter, put a second sheet of dough on top and also grease it with oil.
- Thus, fold 5 sheets of puff pastry, brushing the surface of each with butter. The edges of the dough should go beyond the sides. Put the spinach and feta filling on the dough, cover it with the edges of the dough that hang from the sides of the mold and grease them with oil.
- Alternately cover the top of the pie with the remaining 5 sheets of dough, brushing the surface of each with butter. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake the Greek sorrel pie until golden brown, about 35 minutes.
- Remove the mold from the oven, cover it with a light towel and leave for 15-20 minutes. Cut the pie into bite-sized pieces and serve. Bon appetit!
- Made with phyllo dough and spinach filling, wrap tightly in cling film and freeze (without baking). When you want to cook
To prepare puff pastries, you will need ready-made yeast-free dough (store-bought or homemade). It needs to be rolled out as thin as possible so that it is almost not felt and crunchy when biting. For the filling, you can use frozen or fresh spinach. And if you add green onions, dill and parsley, then the filling will be fragrant in spring.
Advice! The cake is delicious, while hot, just out of the oven. As the puffs cool, they will not be as crispy, so carefully calculate the number of servings to make a one-time appetizer.
Total cooking time: 2 hours | Cooking time: 25 minutes
Yield: 12-14 pieces | Calories: 232.23
Ingredients
- frozen spinach - 250 g
- puff pastry without yeast - 250 g
- feta cheese - 200 g
- chicken eggs - 2 pcs.
- onion - 1 pc. (100 g)
- parsley, dill, green onion - to taste
- salt - 1-2 chips.
- vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
- sour cream for lubrication - 1 tbsp. l.
Cooking
Large photos Small photosDefrost puff pastry and spinach completely.
Finely chop the onion, fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. While the onion is fried, finely chop the greens (parsley, dill, green onion feathers).
In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Then add feta to them - carefully mash with a fork, mix with eggs until smooth.
Add finely chopped spinach to the filling (squeeze well so that there is no excess moisture), fried onions, herbs, salt to taste. Mix everything well.
Roll out the dough as thin as possible, then cut into 12 cm squares.
Put a portion of the filling on each piece. Form triangles. Tighten the edges tightly (I did a tuck, tuck and tuck again).
Transfer the triangles to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Top with a little sour cream to brown the baked goods in the oven.
Bake at 180-190 degrees (the oven must be preheated in advance) for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
Serve immediately, piping hot while crispy and warm. In addition, you can serve tzatziki (tsatsaki) sauce. Bon appetit!
Everyone who has been to Greece will probably agree with my characteristics of the local cuisine: it is very tasty and bright, but the names of the dishes are often impossible to even pronounce correctly, let alone remember.
I confess that I also have difficulties with these names, but I still managed to remember a few, I even wrote down something in order to find the recipe at home and try to repeat it. And first of all, this refers to a very tasty pie called Spanakopita. I don’t know how it is translated, probably something banal, like “spinach pie”, but, in my opinion, it would be more correct to say “narcotic-tasty pastry, on which one becomes addicted”. Crispy crust, cheese, spinach - a magical combination.
There are a lot of variations of this cake, different shapes are possible, from portioned triangles to large ones, for the whole baking sheet. The dough and the filling are also combined in different ways: in layers, like lasagna, like ordinary pies with filling inside, or like (my favorite option) a snail. There are even more filling options, spinach and cheese are always present, but they are taken in different proportions and supplemented with a variety of ingredients.
I tried many recipes and in the end I chose the most ideal option for myself, I hope you will like it too.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 package filo dough (8-9 sheets)
- 1 large package of spinach leaves (if frozen, then 200g)
- feta or cheese, 300g
- fresh slightly salted cheese, 200g
- butter, 40g
- olive oil, 1 tbsp
- Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp
- ground pepper
- a few sprigs of mint
- sesame seeds for decoration
Notes .
In this recipe, it is not necessary to be precise and use all the ingredients. The key ingredients are filo dough, spinach and cheese. Mint, olive oil, Greek yogurt are all flavor-enhancing additives, but if they're not on hand, it's okay. Yogurt can be replaced with low-fat sour cream, dried herbs can be added instead of mint, etc.
With cheeses, it is also not necessary to use such proportions, the main thing is that the total amount of cheeses is 500g and it is advisable to take 2 different ones. One of them should be crumbly and salty, in the original it is, of course, Greek feta, but you can use cheese or something similar instead. The second cheese is needed young, milky and slightly salty, in Greece there are a lot of such cheeses, each island makes its own varieties, but nothing is delivered to us, and the most suitable option that I found is kachoricotta. Alternatively, you can use lightly salted Adyghe cheeses.
Phyllo dough is not so difficult to buy now, I often come across it in large supermarkets. If you can’t find it at all, then you can replace it with thinly rolled puff pastry, it will no longer be quite spanakopita, but it will still turn out delicious.
Cooking:
Cook spinach over low heat until reduced in volume. If you use frozen, then you need to evaporate the excess liquid. If the leaves were large, then you can tear them with your hands before stewing or only then lightly chop them with a blender.
Crumble the cheeses with your fingers or grind in a blender (not too much). Add finely chopped mint, yogurt, olive oil, pepper and spinach to them. I didn’t specify salt in the recipe, feta / cheese usually contains quite a lot of it anyway, you don’t need to add additional salt.
Filo are thin sheets of unleavened dough, rectangular or square. It is not difficult to work with it, but there are some nuances: you need to carefully take out and carry out some actions with these sheets, they are easily torn. And the dough, which is not yet used, must be covered with a towel so that it does not dry out.
Lightly brush each sheet with melted butter, then spread the filling along one of the edges and roll it up like a roll. It is not necessary to wrap it very tightly, there should be a little air between the layers of dough, so that later airy crispy layers are obtained.
Cover the baking sheet with parchment, roll the prepared tubes in the shape of a snail, it is not necessary to lay it very tightly, leave a little air between the "rings". Lubricate the future cake with butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Filo pastry does not rise and spread much, so you can cook it without special forms.
Cook in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
This pie is delicious both hot and cold. It can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days, but this is unlikely :).
Do you like the combination of cheese and spinach? What is your favorite Greek dish?
