Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)
Below the original recipe, and in brackets some substitutions done on that occasion, i.e. what I had. See also, “Spinach and Cheese Pie” recipe on the back of the Antoniou Fillo Pastry box.
Filling
1kg spinach/silver beet, (I used 2 big packets of baby spinach leaves)
2 leeks, (I used a large bunch of spring onions, green tops as well)
4 onions
1 bunch of dill
4 eggs
250 grams of Greek Fetta, ( I used 200 grams Danish Fetta plus some crumbled parmesan and a handful of light shredded mozzarella to make up the weight)
Salt
Pepper
½ cup of oil (I used olive)
(nutmeg)
Clean and chop spinach and leeks. (If using silver beet, use some white stalk as well, the baby spinach doesn't need chopping) Chop the dill and onions. Heat the oil in a wide pan, saute the onions and leeks, then add the spinach and dill. Season, then lower temperature and cook a few minutes to allow moisture to dry up a little. Cool mixture. Once cold add the beaten eggs and cumbled fetta.
Pastry
½ kilo of plain flour
½ cup of oil
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon of salt (seems like a lot, but oil is used instead of salty butter)
2 teaspoons of vinegar
Sesame seeds
Extra oil for brushing
Place flour in bowl, make a well into which you add the salt, the oil, the vinegar, and slowly the water. Need dough into a single ball, and cover and rest for ½ an hour. Cut dough into four pieces. Roll out one of the four pieces very thinly to cover the oiled lamington tin. Brush this with oil again, and cover with the second piece of thinly rolled pastry. Add the filling and cov er with the third and fourth oiled up pastry sheets. Crimp the top and bottom edges. Brush final sheet with oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for perhaps 45 minutes or so in a preheated moderate oven.
(I cheated and used packet fillo instead of this pastry, maybe 8 sheets on the bottom and the same on the top, every second sheet brushed with ½ butter and ½ oil mixture, but the recipe above is much nicer if you have the time.)