making do

i love the alchemic way in which a few random ingredients can be made into something nutritious and delicious..for instance i don't have a plethora of spinach for making spanakopita at the moment but after a little bit of foraging on the home front yesterday i found enough greens to make a hortopita or wild greens pie..i gathered rocket (i have a lot of the smaller leaved variety that self seeds everywhere), dandelion leaves, violet leaves..yes they are edible, purslane, spinach, watercress, mint and wild fennel (i collected the seeds last year from the dandenongs, where it grows wild, while on a blackberrying expedition)..and i did a bit of tweaking with my phyllo recipe..

strifti hortopita (spiral wild greens pie)

tea with hazel

ingredients pie filling (these ingredients can be adjusted to suit individual taste and the ingredients to hand)

about 5-6 cups of mixed greens (i used rocket, purslane, violet leaves, watercress, spinach and dandelion)

1/4 cup of mint cut medium

1/2 cup of fennel fronds

1 egg beaten (1 tablespoon (tbs) reserved)

150 gms feta crumbled

150 gms ricotta

1 teaspoon (tsp) salt (murray river salt)

1 teaspoon pepper

method pie filling

~ cook the dandelion leaves first in a centimetre of boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes, then add the violet and rocket leaves and cook for a further 5 minutes..lastly add the purslane and spinach and cook until all of the leaves are well wilted

~ drain the leaves in a colander, cut up with scissors while still in the colander, and then press the leaves to extract excess water (the water is like a health tonic so i drink it)

~ mix the greens with the herbs, cheeses, salt, pepper and egg and set aside

extra ingredients

sesame seeds

melted butter

ingredients pastry

200 gms typo 00 flour

50 gms rimacinato flour

35 mls olive oil

1 tbs cider vinegar

1 tsp salt (murray river)

warm water

method pastry

~ place flours, salt, vinegar and olive oil in the bowl of a stand mixer and, with the motor running add enough water to make a soft dough

~ knead for 5 minutes 

~ remove the bowl from the mixer, cover with a damp tea towel, and rest for 1 hour

~ divide the dough equally into 5 balls, roll each one into saucer shaped discs, and rest covered for 30 minutes

~ roll each disc to a rectangle about the size of a large dinner plate size and until it's semi transparent

method assembly

~ butter each sheet of phyllo, place a fifth of the mixture along the long bottom end of the pastry, and then roll up into a sausage

~ coil the sausage in the middle of a lined circular tin

~ continue in the same manner buttering the ends so they adhere to the last piece
~ brush the top with reserved egg and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds
~ bake at 220 deg c for 10-15 minutes and then at 180 deg c for a further 40 minutes or until well browned
  

 comments

~ i think the pastry made with the typo 00 and rimacinata flours was better than my former phyllo for a savoury pie..it was certainly harder to roll out but its more robust and coarse crunch suited the savoury filling
~ i thought the flavours of the leaves and herbs worked well and none overpowered the others..i hadn't eaten violet leaves before (apart from chewing on a raw one recently when i discovered they were edible) so i wasn't sure how they would go but there was no stringy chewiness or weird flavour and if i hadn't put them in myself i wouldn't have known they were there..

i'm grateful
that i'm eating weeds because i want to
not because i have to..

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......