Friday, June 29, 2012

Spanakopita

Spanakopita is an amazing dish made with spinach and phyllo dough. It works great when you want to make some finger foods, or a main dish. Here is a couple of takes on it.
From allrecipes

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 bunch green onions, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 pounds spinach, rinsed and chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 8 sheets phyllo dough
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a 9x9 inch square baking pan.
  2. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, green onions and garlic, until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach and parsley, and continue to saute until spinach is limp, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, ricotta, and feta. Stir in spinach mixture. Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking pan, and brush lightly with olive oil. Lay another sheet of phyllo dough on top, brush with olive oil, and repeat process with two more sheets of phyllo. The sheets will overlap the pan. Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging dough over filling. Brush with oil, then layer remaining 4 sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with oil. Tuck overhanging dough into pan to seal filling.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cut into squares and serve while hot.

My Version.

  • grape seed oil (healthier than the olive oil because it can stand a higher heat) 
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 pounds of spinach or amaranth rinsed, (no need to chop, it will cook down eniough)
  • 1/2 bunch of parsley
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/3 cup of hard or crumbly cheese (goat, fetamozzarella, sheep)
  • 1/4 cup of yogurt
  • 4 oz of cream cheese (1/2 a package) 
  • Phyllo dough (usually when you buy it, it comes in severally rolls in a box, I use one roll. that has several sheets) 
Preheat oven to 350 an oil a 9 by 9in pan
saute the onions and garlic in the grape seed oil. When the onions are becoming translucent put the spinach or amaranth and the parsley in and cook until the greens are limp. Mix all the other ingredients, minus the dough and olive oil in a bowl. Take a tbsp of the spinach, and mix into the bowl mixture, repeat until the egg mixture is tempered. If you add it to the spinach, or all the spinach to it at once, then the eggs will be all scrambelly and not... Well not right. The texture will be off. You might as well have made an omelet. Once it is tempered you can mix it all together. Put one layer down on the pan, and brush with oil, do this 2 more times so that you have 3 layers, then spread 1/3 of the spinach mixture down then put 3 more phyllo sheets down with oil on top of each. Spread another 1/3 of the mix down, and repeat with the sheets, and spread the rest of the mixture and put another 3 layers down. Cut with a sharp knife, with 3 cuts North to South and East to West. You can also do diagnal cuts so that you have triangles. Bake untill golden on top, about 30-40 min, but if it starts getting to golden before your minutes are up and you think the rest needs more cookin', then put some foil over the top to stop it from browning to much. 

If you want those perfect little triangles, all wrapped up, trie this method (you can use whatever filling recipe you want) http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Greek-Spinach-Triangles-Food_com-123167 or http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Spinach-And-3-Cheese-Phyllo-Triangles-Recipezaar

I just cut the sheets into fours, and wrap like a burrito, then place them seam side down. 

Happy SpanakopitaIng!


2 comments:

  1. I really like your post. . .it interest me a lot to read about it. . . thanks for sharing it to us . .
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  2. I'm so glad you liked it! I try to post interesting things.

    ReplyDelete