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.

 

Pastitsio (macaroni pie)

GREEK PASTITSIO (Macaroni pie)

This recipe is for 16 people.

To make this dish use a large and deep pan with dimensions 31CH41CH6 cm.

Ingredients for the ground beef

1500 grams of lean ground beef

80 grams of olive oil

4 large, ripe tomatoes

Pepper and salt

1 medium dry onion

Ingredients for the white sauce (Bechamel)

2.5 liters of milk 3.5% fat

180 grams margarine

200 grams all purpose-flour

Ingredients for the basis of pastitsio

400 g spaghetti no 2

8 g. margarine

300 grams of grated cheese for pasta
Suitable cheeses are kefalotiri, the gruyere, the parmesan and generally all slireses.

Instructions

Pastitsio Base

Put water in a pot and place it over high heat.

When the water boils, put the pasta in the pot and stir.

Boil the pasta until tender but not over boiled.

Drain the pasta in a colander and drain it well.

Empty the pasta in the pan and put in it 8 g margarine and most of the grated cheese.

Stir well so the cheese goes all over the pasta.

Leave aside some cheese to spread it over the Bechamel sauce.

Spread the pasta evenly in the bottom of the pan.

The pasta forms the basis of pastitsio.

Heating the milk

Pour 2.5 liters of milk in a pot and put it over medium heat.

Heat the milk you are going to use for the sauce.

Wait until the milk warms up, do not let it boil.

Remove it from the heat before boiling and let it aside.

If it boils, it swells and it spills out.

.

Cooking the meat
Clean the onion and chop it.

Place a saucepan over medium heat and put the olive oil in it.

Put the onion in the saucepan.

Stir occasionally, until the onion becomes soft and tender.

Add the ground beef in the onion and stir well. Add salt and pepper.

Reduce heat and let the meat to warm up and produce its fluids.

Stir often and break the lumps that are formed as the meat boils.

Press them with a fork and break them.

The meat begins to soften after 45 min.

Wash the tomatoes. Cut them in small pieces and put them in the blender.

Mince them and put them in the ground beef.

Stir occasionally the meat and let it to boil until its fluids are absorbed for their most part.

Empty the minced meat in the pan and spread it evenly over the base of pasta.

How to make the Bechamel sauce

Place a saucepan over low heat and pour in the margarine.

Stir until it melts.

Put in the melted margarine little by little the flour while stirring.

Cooke the flour until its color becomes light brown.

The flour burns easily so stand over the saucepan and stir continuously.

When the flour is ready, pour in the saucepan cup by cup all the hot milk.

Beat the cream with a hand blender and homogenize it.

Stop the blender and continue to stir the cream with spoon ladle.

The cream sticks to the saucepan very easily, so mix constantly.

If you understand that the crème is going to stick, reduce more the heat..

When it stars to boil, remove it from the heat.

When it is warm, empty it into the pan over the meat.

With a spatula spread the cream evenly throughout the pan.

Sprinkle grated cheese over the Bechamel sauce.

Put the pan in the oven on the middle rack.

Bake it at 200 C degrees for 45-50 minutes.

When the pastitsio is ready, it smells nicely and its surface takes beige color.

Take the pan out of the oven and leave it to cool.

If you try to cut the pastitsio while it's hot, it brakes.

It should stay out of the oven for at least two hours, before cutting it into pieces.

This is a large dose so make it only when you expect a big company.

Make half the dose if you are going to serve a small group of people.

You can make the entire dose, but divide it in two smaller pans.

Bake one immediately and the other one wrap it with foil and put it uncooked in the freezer.

When you want to bake it, remove it from the refrigerator 4 hours earlier to unfreeze.

 

Lamb with lettuce, spinach and egg and lemon sauce (fricasse in Greek)

LAMB WITH LETTUCE, SPINACH AND EGG AND LEMON SAUCE

(Lamb with lettuce and spinach, fricassee, in Greek)

I describe two different ways of making the fricassee.

The two methods differ only in the way that the meat is cooked. All the other steps are the same on both recipes.

 (Recipe for 6 people)

Ingredients

2kg lamb or baby goat (The most suitable part of the animal is the neck and the front leg cut into medium size pieces. The lamb must be very fresh, because the stale lamb has an unpleasant odor).

180 grams of olive oil

2 large onions

1 medium potato

1.5 kg purified spinach or 2 pounds gross

4 large lettuces

1 bunch dill

2 large eggs

2 lemons,

Some olives for the decoration,

Salt to taste

Very little red hot pepper

1 teaspoon coriander motes

Instructions

The meat for fricassee should be cut into small pieces.

It is good to have each piece approximately the size of a medium mandarin.

Some Super Market sell mutton purified from bones.

If you buy boneless meat, 1.5kg is enough.

Put 4 glasses of water in a pot.

Put the pot on high heat.

Wait for the water to boil.

Chop the onions and put them in the pot.

Let the onions cook 2-3 minutes.

Thoroughly wash the lamb with water.

Look carefully to see if there are any small broken bones on the meat. If you find any take them off.

Put the meat in the pot with the onions and wait until it begins to boil.

Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat and simmer.

If the meat is cooked in medium heat, it becomes tastier.

Cooking for 1-1.5 hour is sufficient to soften the meat.

Stir occasionally and check if there are enough liquids in the pot.

If the broth is very little, add some boiling water in the pot.

The fricassee isn’t a soup. It does not need too much of broth.

When you think that the meat is ready, is time to check if it is soft.

Nail a fork into the meat.

If the fork goes easily into the meat and the meat unsticks from the bones, it is time to add the vegetables.

If the fork finds resistance to get into the meat and the meat does not unstick from the bones, it needs more cooking. .

Let the meat simmer until it becomes soft and tender.  

Add salt if necessary and put very little red chili pepper.

While you boil the meat, prepare lettuce, spinach and dill.

From dill usually use the leaves.

The stalks are sometimes soft, sometimes dry.

Single dried stalks and discard them.

Chop finely the tender stalks and put the pieces in the food, because they add flavor.

Wash the dill in plenty of water, two or three times, and leave it aside.

If you buy washed and purified spinach, then just rinse it once, to refresh it.

If you buy gross fresh spinach, then scour it.

There is soil hidden between the stems of the leaves and the roots. 
Cut the roots of each spinach and discard it.

Spinach needs good washing in plenty of water.

To be sure that all the dirt is gone, wash the spinach at least four times changing the water each time.

Cut each leaf of the spinach in 2-3 pieces and let them aside.

Remove the yellow dried leaves from the lettuce.

Fill a big bowl with water. Put in it some salt and vinegar and submerge the leaves of lettuce.

Let the leaves briefly dipped into the water, to loosen all the small bugs on them.

Wash them at least three times, each time changing the water.

Cut each leaf in four pieces.

Clean the potato washed it and cut it into dices.

When the meat is tender, take a slotted spoon and remove it from the pot. Place the meat on a platter,
cover it and leave it aside.  

Taste a small piece of meat. If it needs more salt, add some.

Chop finely the dill in the pot with the boiling broth of the meat.

Add in the pot the pieces of spinach and lettuce and stir.
Let those vegetables to boil for 3 minutes.

Add the pieces of the potato and stir well.

Let the vegetables cook until they become soft.

Add some salt.

When the vegetables are ready, put the meat back into the pot and boil them all together for 5 minutes.

 Squeeze 1.5 lemons.

Put two eggs in a bowl and beat them with a whisk.

Pour the lemon juice little by little in the bowl with the eggs and at the same time continue beating the eggs.

With a soup ladle take hot broth from the pot and pour it in the bowl with the eggs little by little while beating.

Repeat this step 3-4 times.

So add enough hot broth into the eggs to get them cooked and yet remain a velvet sauce.

Take the pot from the heat and leave it aside.

Uncover the pot and pour in slowly the eggs and lemon sauce while stirring.

Give the eggs the time they need to mix with the lemon and become a tasteful sauce.

Tilt the pan to the side so the sauce goes everywhere.

Second way of cooking the meat

Put in a saucepan the oil and add chopped onions.

Put the pot over medium heat and let the onions sauté.

Put the meat into the pot and mix it with the onions.

Stir well so all the meat gets olive oil.

Lower the heat and let the meat simmer.

If the maximum of your appliance is 6, turn the indicator to 2.

Add salt, ground black pepper or a very small piece of red chili pepper.

Stir frequently.

The meat releases its fluids and cooks in them.

Let the meat simmer until soft.

Remove meat to a platter and continue as before.

Whichever way you choose  to make your fricassee it will come out delicious.

You can make the fricassee with lettuce only or with spinach only or solely with artichokes.