a pie and a cupcake

i didn't grow up eating egg and bacon pie..in fact i didn't even know it existed until i had it at a friend's many years ago but it was love at first bite and my affection for it hasn't waned after all these years.. i don't make it often though because pastry is so artery unfriendly and that's a bit of a problem for me because i just love making pastry..i'll use any excuse to get the rolling pin out and a friend coming for lunch was a good enough reason to make my version of this classic dish..i served it hot with a good quality tomato chutney (maggie beer) and a home grown green leaf (dandelion, rocket, oak leaf lettuce, watercress and nasturtium) salad with edible flowers (marigold, nasturtium, violet and dianthus) and a fresh pomegranate juice dressing..and i made cardamon, currant and candied orange peel cupcakes to have with our bottomless pot of tea..

egg and bacon pie

tea with hazel

ingredients

150 gms diced cold unsalted butter
300 gms plain flour
iced water with a squeeze of lemon juice
1 cup of grated cheddar (i used a cloth bound english cheddar)
1 teaspoon (tsp) chilli flakes
1 tsp salt (i use murray river salt)
12 eggs
6-8 rashers bacon cut into 2-3 cm pieces lightly cooked and drained on kitchen paper
1/4 cup of chives cut fine
1/4 cup parsley cut fine
2 tablespoons milk
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper

method pastry

~ place flour in the bowl of a food processor, add salt and butter, and process until the butter resembles fine bread crumbs
~ add half of the cheese and slowly add water, while using the pulse function, until the dough starts to form a ball
~ remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently
~ divide the dough into a third and two third pieces and shape in flat rounds
~ wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour

assembling the pie

~ roll the larger piece of pastry to fit the bottom and sides of a 30 cm diameter pie dish trimming the pastry to the top edge of the dish and then refrigerate while rolling out the remaining pastry to fit the top of the pie
~ sprinkle the base of the pastry with the remaining cheese, add half of the bacon, add eggs and chives, parsley, salt and pepper and then remaining bacon
~ moisten the edge of the pastry with the milk and add the pastry top turning the bottom pastry over the top to form a seal
~ roll out scraps and cut out a rooster
~ brush the top of the pie with milk and place the rooster in the centre
~ carefully pierce the top with the point of a knife a few times avoiding the egg yolks
~ bake at 210 deg c for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 180 deg c and cook until the pie is well browned

cardamon, currant and candied orange peel cupcakes

tea with hazel

ingredients

155 gms unsalted butter

2 tablespoons muscovado sugar together with enough castor sugar to make 2/3 cup in total 

1 1/2 cups self raising flour sifted

2 eggs

1/2 cup currants

3 teaspoons (tsp) finely diced candied orange peel (see recipe here)

2 1/2 tsp powdered cardamon 

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

pinch salt

1 tsp cardamon mixed with 2 tbs castor sugar

method

~ cream butter, sugars and salt until pale 

~ add eggs one at a time mixing well between additions

~ gently fold in flour, peel, currants, essence and cardamon

~ divide between 10-12 cupcake cases and sift the tops with the cardamon/castor sugar mix

~ cook at 195 deg c for 15-20 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer

spiral spinach pie (strifti hortopita)

you know when you make an iconic recipe on and off over the years and it turns out ok but it never really quite hits the spot..and you're not sure why at the time but you don't really think about it much after you've made it..well..life just moves on and it's not til the next time you make it that that lingering dissatisfaction creeps back into your mind..well..that's how it's been for me with spinach pies..

it's many decades since i made my first spinach pie in the small town of edessa..i made my own phyllo for that pie using a recipe given to me by the mother of my dear friend katie..i met her through my husband's friendship with her father..he was the carpenter for the army unit where my husband was based while he was doing his mandatory national service..katie and i became firm friends and we shared a love of many things including cooking..

i can't imagine making that phyllo again though because it was made with rendered pork fat..now..that may sound really strange but we're talking here about the type of frugality that came with a financially impoverished village life back then..

that pie took me ages to make because first of all i had to gather the ingredients..and it wasn't a case of drive to the supermarket, buy the goodies, drive home and start to cook.. i had to walk the four kilometre round trip to the weekly market held out of town for the greens, eggs and cheese..the pork fat i was able to get through the butcher son of our landlady and the remaining ingredients were purchased from a shop in the town..then of course i had to render the fat and wash the greens and make the phyllo dough and roll the phyllo and assemble the pie..then i had to walk to the local baker to have the pie baked..and then of course i had to go back later to pick it up..and all that was done before midday..

my husband and i took that pie with us on a picnic that we went on with a group of friends..after our long walk to the picnic site we set everything up at our usual spot on the side of a hill where we sat on the cushiony soft needles that had fallen from the canopy of pine trees above us..and we ate that pie with relish as we gazed across the fertile agricultural valley in front of us..

although i've continued to make spinach pastries i only ever made my own phyllo once more..since then i've used store bought phyllo but as i said earlier no matter what style of spinach pie i've made i have never been that happy with the outcome..for instance with the triangular style there's too much pastry to filling and with the large dish pies the ratio of filling to pastry is often too much..and in the latter case the slices tend to be hard to manage, especially if it's picnic food, and also the pastry has a habit of going soft pretty quickly..but until this week i'd never made a spiral style spinach pie..yeah..i'd seen them in greece but i don't remember trying this style of pie..certainly no one i knew ever made it..and even if there was ever a very faint flickering of the idea that i could make it i had quickly doused that little flame with notions of too difficult..

well people listen up..i am here to tell you that this pie is not only easy to make but it's delicious, it cuts and serves well, the ratios of pastry and filling are right as is the ratio of soft to crispy pastry..so i think i've found the holy grail of spinach pies..

spiral spinach pie (strifti hortopita)
adapted from here

ingredients


1 large bunch of spinach
250 gms feta cheese crumbled
250 gms ricotta
1/3 cup grated pecorina
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup finely chopped dill
6 spring onions finely cut (including green part)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp oregano
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

1 packet of phyllo pastry (thawed if frozen)
melted butter

method


pre heat oven to 180 deg c

wash spinach well in several changes of water removing any thick stalks and/or damaged leaves..drain the spinach and place it in a large saucepan and cook over moderate heat turning the leaves often until they are softened..drain the spinach then cut it up into small pieces..place it in a colander and press the spinach with a spoon to remove as much moisture as possible..

place the spinach in a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients (except for phyllo and butter)..mix well..

place phyllo covered with a dampened tea towel on work surface..layer six buttered phyllo sheets and then spoon some of the spinach mixture along one long side of the phyllo..roll the phyllo and then making a coil place it into the middle of a round dish (tapsi)..continue in this fashion buttering the ends of the phyllo so that the next coil adheres to the last..

butter the top of the pie and spray with water

bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is well browned..

may be eaten warm or cold

edit: 11 october 2021

used thicker filo..made 5 rolls with 3 left over sheets..next time divide mix into 6 to make 6 rolls with 3 sheets of filo/roll..

as you can see i served the pie with a lentil soup..because i don't like waste i used the tomato juice by product of my tomato puree bottling from the day before as the base of the soup..and i added some thin strips of zucchini as a garnish..and a drizzle of oil..

the only thing i'd like to try now is to make and use my own phyllo again which would amp it up to the utter sublime..but......

dinner with my bairns

even though my children have left home we have dinner together at my place each wednesday fortnight..it's a time when we catch up with each others news and if one of us has a pressing issue the rest offer support..i am continually grateful for the close bond that we have established and for the opportunity to cook for my children on those wednesdays..if time and circumstances permit i like to extend my culinary repertoire..last wednesday fortnight i made nettle pasta for the first time and it was a much greater success than my nettle gnocchi..i made a sauce with home bottled tomato puree, homemade chicken and bacon stock, fresh red chilli, capers, kalamata olives and i garnished it with parmesan and wafer thin crispy free range bacon..

bacon was put on after the parmesan

and for sweets i made creme caramel..

and meringues..

and i served the creme caramel with the meringues roughly broken in four..

and quarters of a homemade candied orange slice..

and a good dollop of cream..

by the way my other daughter's mia because she was the photographer.. 

last night's menu consisted of a beef and guinness pie which i'd never made before..and i made short crust pastry for the top..

there's a bird in my pie!

and the accompaniments were petit pois, mashed potato, that my daughter and i took turns to push through a fine sieve, with garlic infused olive oil, butter and cream and mushrooms with garlic, a couple of pinches of powdered coriander and finely cut parsley..

rustic plating!

and sweets this time was a lemon and passionfruit delicious with cream..

and today i had enough beef and guinness and pastry left over from making yesterdays pie to make a pie in a cup for dinner..

and i reserved a couple of pieces of potato from those i boiled yesterday for the mash and today i put it into this loaf of sourdough bread..

it's darker in real life

what's happening in your kitchen?..jane

the tale of 'pie': a delicious two part epic

Part 1: its greece 1983 and i am there visiting relatives with my greek born husband and my children

  

while we were there we went with my brother in law, on his recommendation, to an area north of my husband's home town of jannina to a place called vikos gorge. When we arrived in the village of monodendri, which is the town closest to the gorge, my brother in law suggested that we go to a particular restaurant in the village and order lunch so that it would be ready when we returned from our explorations. my brother in law had told us that he was ordering a pie and having had many greek pies i expected it to be similar to those i had already sampled. we did our explorations of the area and duly returned to the restaurant after an hour or so as we had been advised by the owner. after a few minutes a huge tapsi, over 2 feet in diameter with a delicious looking pie in it, was produced. it was a great surprise to me because it was quite different to what i had expected and it was quite different to any other pie i had eaten in greece before. that's because it it had no pastry and secondly it was very thin sort of like a cross between a crepe and a pizza. it had a softish but not too moist dough studded with feta and a crisp base and edges. On and off since then i have thought about 'pie' and I have searched recipe books for 'pie', despite not knowing it's name, and i have tried reproducing it using a crepe batter but 'pie' has eluded me.

Part 2: its 2011 and i have returned to australia from a trip to greece with my children

my adult children and i have a meal together once a fortnight at my place where i get to play in the kitchen. this week was our first meal together since returning from greece so i decided to have a greek meal to continue the whole happy greek vibe we had going on there. anyway for some inexplicable reason 'pie' appeared in my head the morning of our dinner and so i did a bit of an online search and i found a recipe for what looked and sounded like long lost 'pie' called 'alevropita' which means flour pie. in actual fact i found two recipes. i chose the one that sounded like original 'pie' and made it as part of our meal not having any idea whether it would come up to scratch. just in case you're wondering i made a warm 'weed' salad of homegrown stinging nettles, chicory, dandelion, rocket and rainbow chard, tzatziki sprinkled with sumac and lamb cutlets marinated in olive oil, oregano, maniot salt, that i brought back for greece (customs know about it!), and pepper that were grilled on a ridged plate and drenched in lemon juice. sweets was greek rice pudding served in ceramic pots, pots that i had brought back from greece that originally had yoghurt in them, and dusted with cinammon. well, no more suspense dear readers. the pie i made was as delicious as long lost 'pie' so if you want to try 'pie' the recipe is here and there's a photo too. jane