OM NOM NOM!!! Spinach is my favourite food! This recipe is not a traditional Greek recipe, as it uses Savoury Short Crust pastry instead of the more difficult, traditional Filo (Phyllo) pastry... Furthermore this time 'round I was short on Feta - so I've added a little salted cottage cheese to make it go further! Note the reference to salted cottage cheese - I once tried to make Spanokopita with cottage cheese and no added salt, it was BLAND! I think that, in theory, cottage cheese should work as a Feta substitute
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| Clockwise from top left: steamed spinach and asparagus, last night's left over veggies (not shown: aioli for veggies), dinner plate soon to be filled, classy Spanokopita with a bow tie, tzatziki - Greek, garlic and cucumber yoghurt sauce... |
You will need:
1 packet Savoury Short Crust Pastry
1 knob butter
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
400g spinach, washed and coarsely chopped
150g cottage cheese
150g feta, crumbled
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of salt
Method:
Set oven to 200 degrees C and grease your pie dish, or in my case... Rectangular cake tin (that is one useful kitchen item!)
Line your tin with the pastry sheets so that you have some overlap at the top to fold over and stick the lid to (save some pastry for the lid)...
Melt the butter in a frying pan (preferably one that comes with a lid) and slowly saute the garlic and onion until soft. When the garlic/onion are soft, throw the spinach in and cover... You may need to add some water at this point to stop the spinach burning...
In a large bowl, beat the eggs... The pull a couple of spoonfuls of egg out and put it in a separate, small bowl to be your egg wash later... Then add to the large bowl, your cottage cheese, crumbled feta, nutmeg and salt... Mix well!
When the spinach has wilted, drain it and stir into the rest of the ingredients.
Pour the pie filling into the pastry and fold the extra side-y-bits over the top. Mix some water into your reserved egg and brush the top of the pastry with the egg wash using either a pastry brush (if you have one) or your fingers (like me) or a paper towel (like me, once I realised that I still had to souch stuff with my now-eggy fingers)...
Sit a lid on your pie, and press it gently onto the egg-washed flaps. Pierce the lid, and decorate with any left over pastry... I've done bow ties, hearts and letters before now... Brush the whole pie with the egg wash and bung it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the folling solid...
Serve was with veggies, tzatziki and bread!
My favourtie!!!
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| If you ever make this at your house - be sure to invite me to tea! |
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