Spinach pie

SPINACH PIE

Use ready sheet for pies, when you are in a hurry.

Buy the traditional sheet for pies of Kanakis co.

You can find this sheet in all stores that sell Greek products.

I give you below recipes for sheet making.

When you have time, if you want to get into this process, try making your own sheet.

It is not very difficult and tastes better.

Spinach pie with ready sheet

For this pie use a pan with dimensions 31CH41CH6 centimeters.

The dose described below is a big one and makes more than 35 medium-sized pieces.

Ingredients

1/2 kilo traditional sheet of Kanakis co,

2 kilos fresh gross spinach or 1.5 purified spinach 

500 g feta

350 g Edam cheese or Gouda cheese

2 bunches parsley and 2 bunches of dill

120 g of whipping cream 30% fat

150 g of olive oil

180 g margarine

Instructions

Stuffing

If you buy purified spinach, wash it in a basin once, to refresh it.

If you buy gross spinach, you have to clean it and then wash it.

First remove the outer leaves of spinach and toss them.

Cut the stems of the leaves one cm above the roots.
Once the roots are cut, the leaves are separated from one another.

Put the leaves of spinach in a basin filled with water.

Wash spinach waving your hands from left to right to remove any dirt stuck on the leaves.

Take the spinach off the basin and put it in a pan.

Toss the water of the basin.

Wash very carefully the basin and fill it with water again.

Put the spinach in the basin and wash as before.

Repeat this process two more times.

It is required a total of four washes to clean thoroughly the spinach.

Put the spinach in a deep pot.

Place the pot over medium heat.

At first the spinach seems too much but as it warms up, its volume diminishes.

Once the volume decreases, turn the spinach over.

The lower leaves that have wilted come to the surface.

Let the pan for a few minutes over the heat, to wither all leaves.

Take the pot from the heat.

Let the spinach on a tip and wait to cool.

Put some spinach between your palms.

Squeeze it with your hands to force its liquid to pour.

Continue this way with all the spinach.

Cut the sqeezed spinach into smaller pieces and set aside.

Scour dill and parsley. Wash them thoroughly and mince them into the spinach.

Grate the cheese with the blender.

Mash the feta with your hands into the spinach.

Add the whipping cream and 50 grams of oil.

Stir these ingredients with your hands.

Assembling the pie

Put in a small pot 180 g. of margarine and the rest of the olive oil.

Place the pot over medium heat and stir until the margarine melts.

With a brush coat the pan with margarine and sprinkle it with flour.

Turn the pan and tap it to drop the excess flour.

Each traditional sheet package of Kanakis co. usually contains 7 sheets.

Use 4 of them for the basis of the pie and the remaining 3 to cover the pie. 

Put a sheet on the bottom of the pan and with a brush coat it with margarine.

Put a second sheet over the first one and grease it with margarine.

Put a third and a forth sheet over the previous ones and grease them individually.

Spread the filling evenly over the basis of the pie.

Cover the pie with the remaining three sheets brushing individually with margarine.

Smear the top of the pie with margarine.

Grease a slightly pointed and sharp knife.

Incise the pie into pieces.

Place the pan in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.

Bake at 175 C degrees for 50-60 minutes.

How to make your own sheet

First recipe

Dough

Ingredients                                                                                               

150 grams of margarine

1/2 kilo of hard flour

1/2 kilo fine corn flour

80 g. olive oil

3 tablespoons vinegar,

Luke warm water, as it will be necessary to make the dough smooth.                                                                                                                                                       

Dough

Put in a bowl the flour and in the center of it dig with your hand a small puddle.

Pour oil and vinegar into it.

Mix these ingredients with the flour around the puddle.

Pour warm water into the puddle and knead.

You are trying to make soft and smooth dough that does not stick to the hands.

To achieve this, you may have to add a little flour or little water.

When the dough becomes smooth and soft, cover the bowl with the dough around with cling film.
Put a clean and fluffy towel over the bowl and leave it in a warm place to rest.

It is better to prepare the dough the previous night, because the next morning it is ready to use it and opens easily the sheet.

How to open the sheet

Put a small pot over medium heat.

Put in the margarine and melt it.

Divide the dough into two approximately equal parts.

Sprinkle with corn flour the surface on which you open the sheet.

Take a piece of dough and give it a circular shape.

Sprinkle corn flour on the top surface of the circular dough and open a sheet with your hands.

Sprinkle again corn flour on the top surface of the sheet you opend with your hand and with a molder make that sheet larger and thinner.

With a brush coat the upper surface of the sheet with margarine.

Sprinkle corn flour over it.

Fold the sheet in half, so that the two buttered and floured parts coincide.

Again smeared with margarine the top of the folded sheet and sprinkle it with corn flour.

Fold again the sheet in half. 
This way the original sheet became quartet with smaller size.

Open the folded sheet to the dimensions of the pan you use.

Make it a bit larger, because it has to cover the sides of the pan in their lower part.

Use a pan having dimensions 31CH41CH6 centimeters.

Grease and flour the pan.

Lay the sheet that you have opened on the bottom of the pan

Spread the spinach evenly over it.

In the same way open to quadruple sheet the other half of the dough.

Place this sheet over the filling and cover the pie.

Engrave intermittently with a sharp knife the pie into pieces.

Put the pie in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.

Usually bake in resistors at 175 C degrees for 50- 60 min.

Traditional sheet
Second recipe

Ingredients

130 g. olive oil

125 g. cold margarine from the fridge

1 sachet of dry yeast

1 egg

125g. sheep yogurt

150 g. milk or kefir

250 g. self rising flour

500 g all purpose flour,

500 g. fine corn flour for opening the sheet

Instructions

Dissolve the yeast in half cup lukewarm water.

Pour the oil in a large bowl.

Grade the margarine with tomato grater into the oil.

Mix slightly these two ingredients with a fork.

Add into the bowl the dissolved yeast and mix with a fork slightly.

Beat the egg and add it to the previous mixture.

Stir with a fork and put in the yogurt and milk or kefir.

Add the flour.

Knead well. If the dough sticks to hands, add some flour.

If the dough is hard, add a little oil or a little water or a little milk, to soften it.

Wrap around the bowl with cling film.

Cover the bowl with a clean fluffy towel.

Live the dough in a warm place to rise.  

This dough is sufficient to open a sheet for a big pie in a pan with dimensions in cm 31CH41CH6, or two pies in a round pan 28 cm in diameter.

If you want to make a smaller pie, use a proportion of the dough.

From this point continue as described above.

 Whichever recipe you use for the sheet, the filling of the pie and the assembling remains the same.