Spanakopita-Greek Spinach and Feta Pie (Serves 4)

We had been to a general Mediterranean store to pick up some traditional spices and supplies. There I got the idea of making Spanakopita or Greek Spinach Pie.

I have been wanting to make this pie for the longest time. Usually made with spinach, feta, onions and parsley, I played around with the ingredients a bit. In addition to spinach, feta, onions and parsley, I added fresh oregano, fennel seeds and cured olives.

Final result was just a burst of flavors with every bite reminding one of the presence of each ingredient.

We have been enjoying this pie for the last few days now :-).

2 bunches spinach (about 310 gms cooked)
6 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp fennel seeds
200 gms finely chopped red onions
200 gms feta cheese crumbled (fresh or store bought)
1 tsp packed freshly chopped oregano leaves
4.5 tsp packed freshly chopped parsley leaves
10 cured mixed Greek olives chopped fine (including Kalamata Olives)
salt and pepper to taste
2 17oz boxes of extra thick Greek FILO (8 sheets)*
* Note, we will be using only 6 sheets out of the 8 sheets

1) Take out the filo sheet boxes and thaw them in natural temperature for a few hours before preparation.

2) Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F.

3) Cut the stem off the spinach leaves, clean them thoroughly in water, drain and set aside. Chop the red onions and the olives fine and keep all aside separately.

4) In a large wok or similar dish on medium heat, add 2 tbsp of olive oil. As the oil heats up, add the fennel seeds. When you get the aroma of the fennel seeds from the oil, add the spinach leaves. Cook the spinach leaves for 5-7 minutes or until they become tender. Turn the heat off and let it cool. Take care to squeeze/take out excess water by hand (very important!) and transfer the cooked spinach to a large preparation bowl.

5) Add a little oil to a dry wok, and cook the onions for a few minutes until just done.

6) To the spinach in the preparation bowl, add the onions, finely chopped olives, crumbled feta cheese, freshly chopped parsley and oregano leaves, and salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

7) On a large baking sheet, after carefully removing the wrapper from the filo dough, lay the first filo sheet on the baking sheet. Brush the dough with some olive oil. Repeat until you have layered 4 sheets brushing with olive oil after each layer. Note - depending on your preference, you can layer the top with 4 filo sheets as well if you want a thicker pie.

8) Now pour the spinach mix on the center, level it off into a rectangle shape. Cover on top with 2 more filo dough sheets, brushing with olive oil in between and on the top layer. Fold the edges over since the filo sheets are very big.

 

9) Bake for 50 minutes or until the filo sheets are baked to a nice golden brown color. During the baking process, after 20 minutes or so, every now and then brush the top with olive oil if it looks too dry. Half way during the baking process, turn around the baking sheet so it cooks evenly all over.

10) Cut into whatever shape or size you would like. Serve hot.

Most important thing in this dish is to make sure that the cooked spinach is as dry as possible. So make sure you squeeze out all the water. Secondly dont over bake the dish

Frozen Vanilla Cream Pie (Serves 8)

Last weekend, our friends had come over from Long Island for lunch. We had prepared traditional South Indian dishes for the occasion with rice, sambar, potatoes, beans and fried chips. When it came down to dessert, since the triple chocolate cream pie that I had made a few weeks turned out so well, and time was a factor I thought of making another pie since I had the crust handy.

I did want it to be different from the last time though. So I came up with the idea of a simple vanilla pie with chocolate biscuits and chocolate chips, with a hint of mint flavor in it. Here is the recipe.

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

15 fresh mint leaves

8 chocolate biscuits crumbled (without the cream filling)

1/2 cup Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips minced fine

Keebler Ready Crust pie crust (Graham Cracker)

Chop the mint leaves into small pieces. In a sauce pan, pour 2 cups of heavy cream and add the mint leaves and sugar. Bring the cream to a boil and stir it to dissolve the sugar. Pour the cream into a large bowl through a strainer in order to strain the mint leaves. With your hands squeeze out any juice left in the mint leaves into the cream. Add 2 tbsp of pure vanilla extract and mix. Set aside the bowl in the freezer to cool down.

I had a packet of Indian chocolate biscuit sandwiches with chocolate cream filling called Bourbon biscuits that my daughter and I love. You can buy this from any Indian grocery store or you can use any substitute chocolate biscuit that you like. Take 4 biscuit sandwiches (8 biscuits without the cream filling) and crumble them into small pieces. Set aside. Take enough Ghirardelli (or any other good brand) bittersweet chocolate chips and chop them into very fine pieces. Measure 1/2 cup of this and set aside.

After around 1 hour or so, when the cream has cooled down enough, add the biscuits and the chocolate chips to the cream and stir once or twice till everything mixes well. Pour the mix into the pie crust and freeze this for at least 5.5 - 6 hours. Garnish with mint and serve cold.

This pie turned out to be really good. Next stop is Thanksgiving :-)

Health Rating: Low

Substitute Ingredient/s: My friend's son said he would have preferred semi sweet chocolate chips instead of the bittersweet as he didn't like the bitterness. You can add any kind of chocolate chips you want in this. For the biscuits Oreo cookies can be used as well but that's too common. You can add nuts as well. I avoided them as there were kids in the audience. I think Keebler Chocolate Pie Crust might work better instead of the Graham Cracker version, although the Graham cracker was good enough.

One thing I would mention is that when I served this dessert, I had frozen it for around 4 hours only. So the vanilla pie was soft and hence the chocolate chips and the pie crust were interfering with the smooth texture of the vanilla pie. Since we are freezing only heavy cream here, there is no binding agent and hence it is advisable to freeze the pie for close to 6 hours so that the pie feels whole when you eat it.

Triple Chocolate Cream Pie (Serves 6)

This was the dessert I made for my wife's birthday that we celebrated by cooking at home, and just got a bottle of good red wine from the shop to go along with the food. Yea, I know, I am a cheap stake. But then it gives me an opportunity to try a few dishes for the blog ;-). Now isn't that worth it?

I shall post the appetizer and main course in subsequent posts, but thought that I should share this extremely simple recipe with you, what with the holidays coming soon.

Based on what we had at home, I thought up this recipe and the final result was very satisfying indeed. Even my daughter who refuses to anything but vanilla ice cream, loved this.

1 Keebler Ready Crust Graham Pie Crust

99g or 3.5 oz Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar

2 cups heavy cream

60 - 65 medium sized bitter sweet Ghirardeli chocolate (60% cocao) - (each of them is a little bigger than M&Ms in size)

4 single wafer white mini KitKat chocolate bars

Bring the heavy cream to a boil, and take it off the fire. Break up the Cadbury's milk chocolate bar into pieces and add it to the heavy cream. With the help of a spatula, mix them together to help the chocolate melt and dissolve in the cream. Repeat the same for the bitter sweet Ghirardeli chocolates. Once the chocolates have melted completely and you have a smooth creamy mix, pour it into the pie crust. Break/crush the white KitKat chocolate wafers into very small pieces and just sprinkle them on top of the cream that is contained in the pie crust, taking care not to mix it.

Freeze the pie for approximately 4 hours before serving. Guaranteed to be devoured by all! Enjoy.

Health Rating: Low, but who said ice cream pies were healthy!

Ingredient Substitute/s: You can experiment this any way you want - add nuts, any essence, fruits, etc. Just make sure the ingredients complement each other.