SPANAKOPITA-2(M)         USENET Cookbook         SPANAKOPITA-2(M)
SPANAKOPITA
     SPANAKOPITA-2 - Greek spinach and feta cheese pie
     This recipe is from a greek cookbook, with my modifications
     and the addition of my mother's secret ingredient-leeks.
     "fillo" or ``fyllo'' is the greek word 
for ``leaf''.
INGREDIENTS (about 20 pieces)
     1 lb      fillo dough
     1/2 cup   olive oil
     3 lb      spinach (5 packages, if you use frozen 
spinach)
     1/2 cup   unsalted butter
     1         medium onion, chopped.
     3         leeks, washed and chopped.
     1 lb      feta cheese
     5         eggs
     1 cup     breadcrumbs
     1 cup     milk
     1 tsp     salt
               pepper
PROCEDURE
          (1)  If you are using fresh spinach, wash 
it, dip it
               for a minute or two in boiling water 
to blanch it,
               and then chop it. Drain the spinach and 
squeeze
               most of the water out of it.
          (2)  Wash thoroughly and chop the white part 
of the
               leeks. Peel and chop the onion. Sauté 
the chopped
               leeks and onion in the butter.
          (3)  Add the spinach, salt and pepper. Mix 
everything
               together and simmer for 20 minutes.
          (4)  While the spinach is cooking, grate the 
feta
               cheese (I use a food processor).  Alternatively,
               you can crumble it into small chunks.
          (5)  Remove the spinach from heat and add 
the cheese,
               eggs (beaten), breadcrumbs and milk. 
Mix every-
               thing together and set aside.
          (6)  Grease a square baking pan with a little 
olive
               oil. Take one sheet of dough and place 
it on the
               bottom of the pan towards one of the 
corners, in
               such a way that the dough sticks out 
a little from
               two of the sides of the pan.  Brush the 
sheet with
               olive oil. Repeat this step until you 
have used
               about two thirds of the dough, alternating 
corners
               and always brushing each sheet of dough 
with olive
               oil.
          (7)  Pour the spinach mixture into the pan. 
Level it,
               and fold in the sides of the assembled 
crust.
               Brush the dough with olive oil.
          (8)  Take one sheet of dough and place it 
on top of the
               pie, this time without any bias towards 
any of the
               corners. Brush the sheet with olive oil. 
Repeat
               this step until you have used all the 
remaining
               dough, always brushing each sheet with 
olive oil.
          (9)  Gently tuck the edges of the top sheets 
of dough
               under the sides of the pie.  Brush the 
top with
               olive oil. Using a sharp knife cut the 
top of the
               pie as if you were cutting it to serve 
it, but
               don't go all the way to the bottom.  
Sprinkle the
               pie with 1 Tbsp of water and bake it 
at 350 deg. F
               for 45 minutes.
          (10) Let the pie cool, and serve.
NOTES
     I find that frozen spinach works wonderfully for 
this
     recipe. Also, it's cheaper and somewhat easier 
to prepare.
     Unless you work quickly when assembling the dough 
layers,
     the unused pieces of dough will dry out. Until 
you become
     nimble with this process, you can cover the unused 
dough
     pieces with a damp dishcloth to prevent them from 
drying out
     while you fumble with the construction of the pie.
     The pie keeps well out of the refrigerator for 
a few days
     and can (indeed, some claim must) be eaten at room 
tempera-
     ture.
     Because of the way the pie is constructed, pieces 
cut from
     the corners and sides of the pan are particularly 
crunchy,
     and a lot of people consider them the best part 
of the pie.
     This suits me just fine, because I like the middle 
pieces
     which have more filling!
     The original recipe called for twice the amount 
of olive
     oil, but I find that I don't need that much.
RATING
     Difficulty: moderate.  Time: 1 hour preparation, 
45 minutes
     baking.  Precision: approximate measurement OK.
CONTRIBUTOR
     Kriton Kyrimis
     Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
     kyrimis@princeton.edu    allegra!princeton!kyrimis
     Path: decwrl!recipes
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     Newsgroups: mod.recipes
     Subject: RECIPE: Castillian chocolate
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     Date: 23 Jan 87 04:46:56 GMT
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