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.
