Spanawhatta?

A long time ago, I made Spanakopita.  It was good and all, but I never made it again.  For some reason I got the idea in my head that I needed to make it again and I just couldn't rest until I did.  Well, ok, I could rest, but it did fester.  In case you don't know, Spanakopita is a Greek spinach and other good stuff, stuffed into phyllo dough.  I started out with a half of a sweet onion.  My onion was really big, so I think I probably actually used a third of it.  Chop the onion and cook slowly with about a Tablespoon of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.  You don't want them to brown, just to cook through until they are translucent and fragrant.

I used two packages of frozen chopped spinach.  You can use fresh and cook it, but for my money, frozen is the way to go.  Just defrost them, and then squeeze squeeze squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can.  The best way to do this is to take a clean dish towel (I used one that is already green, pretty smart huh?  ha).  I put the thawed spinach in the middle of the towel and then pull the ends up and start twisting and squeezing.  A ton of water will come out.  Make sure you get as much as possible or your Spanakopita will be soggy and who wants that?  No one.  After you get it all squeezed, put it in a bowl and fluff it up with a fork.

To the spinach add a half cup of chopped flat leaf parsley.  I still have it in my garden, going strong!

And about two Tablespoons or so of chopped mint.  Also still going strong in my garden!

Then add a cup of crumbled Feta cheese.  Mmmm, feta!   Feta is kind of salty so you probably don't want to add too much extra salt to this mixture.  But add some.  Maybe about a teaspoon.  

I also added about 5 grinds from my pepper mill and a good 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg.  It definitely makes a difference so don't skip the nutmeg!

 

Mix it all with one beaten egg to hold it all together and now it's time to for the phyllo dough.  I'm not going to lie to you, phyllo is a giant pain in the ass. It's so fragile and delicate and needs special care.  When you unwrap your thawed out phyllo, make sure you have a damp towel to place over the top of it while you're not using it.  Phyllo will dry out in seconds and as soon as it does, you're done.  There is no going back.   Take the sheets and cut them down the middle, lengthwise.  Brush the dough, carefully, with melted butter and then place about 1/3 cup of the spinach mixture at the top of one of the rows and off to one side.  Either side, it doesn't matter, we're just going to fold these babies up anyway. 

I used between 2 and 3 sheets of phyllo each.  One was too thin.  Fold them end over end, kind of like a flag is folded, so they end up looking like a triangle.

Brush the outside with melted butter and then bake for 20 minutes at 350 or until golden brown.

Enjoy!!!   They were really really good.  And quite frankly, I don't love spinach cooked.  I'd rather have it raw.  So who knows why I wanted to make them so bad.  But I'm glad I did!  They rocked!

καλά τρόφιμα οι φίλοι μου

Yummy Lamb Burgers

I got a hankering for a burger.  OK who am I kidding, I'd eat a burger any day of the week and twice on Sunday!  I love them.   I usually make turkey burgers, but while at the grocery store, the ground lamb caught my eye.  I went for it!  It's definitely more pricey than ground turkey but the occasional splurge doesn't hurt too bad.  As I was driving home, I started to plot out my burger.  I definitely had to use some of the fresh herbs from my garden.  I decided to go with thyme.  It's kind of an obvious choice, but not as obvious as mint.

To that I added salt and pepper, of course.   And then, a generous amount of crumbled feta cheese.  Oh yes... I went there.

And then, just to make sure the burgers held together, I added an egg white.  I then formed them into pretty big patties. 

And headed for the grill!  They cooked for about 8-10 minutes on each side. 

Now.... the dilemma of what to serve on them.  For me, the usual ketchup, mustard and pickles wasn't going to cut it.  Neither was the same old bun.   I didn't have any plain yogurt in the house to make a yogurt sauce either, so I opted to make a sauce from Dijon mustard and mayonnaise.  And as luck would have it, I just happen to have sandwich size Ciabatta rolls in my freezer.  And that was a tasty burger!

I'll be having more tasty burgers this weekend at the National Hamburger Festival!!  I hope I find some gems like I did last year!  I still dream of that Muffaletta burger.

Spanakopita Pasta

I have been thinking about this for a little while now. Combining all the flavors of Spanaopita, a delicious Mediterranean starter of spinach and feta wrapped in phyllo dough, into a pasta. Seems like a no brainer to me. So here's what I did.

I started out with shallots because I'm on a big time shallot kick. I love them. I used about three medium sized shallots for this. You can use more, less, or something else completely. An onion, leeks, garlic, in my opinion, you can't go wrong with whatever you chose.



Saute them in a Tablespoon or so of olive oil, on a low heat. You don't want them to get any color, just mellow out and become softer. They impart a very nice sweetness and mild onion flavor.

Now because it's a new year and I'm trying to be smarter about what I eat, I chose a multi-grain pasta, low fat feta and raw spinach. I did not want to use frozen in this, but if you want to, have at it. I don't love cooked spinach and if using frozen, it's more cooked than not.




So, while your shallots are sweating get that big pot of water on to boil for your pound of pasta. Once the pasta is done, this comes together really fast. Drain cooked pasta into a large boil and take the whole 9 oz. bag of spinach and toss them together (I used a little less than the whole bag, but using the whole bag would be fine). The heat from the cooked pasta will wilt down the spinach perfectly. It's not quite raw but it's not cooked either.



Add the shallots and, because I can't afford pine nuts (which is usually in Spanakopita), I tossed in about 1/3 cup of toasted slivered almonds. Add 2 Tablespoons of crumbled Feta cheese when serving. I do it individually when serving because if you have leftovers (which we always do), and you go to reheat something with Feta in it, the Feta disappears.

If the pasta is too dry when everything is mixed together you can add a little water that the pasta was cooked in, or you could drizzle the top with Extra Virgin Olive Oil when you serve.



Delish!

My Version of Mediterranean Pasta Salad

This salad is one of several different pasta salads I've come up with through the years, and probably my favorite one. It's got it all. Start with a pound of farfalle (otherwise known as bowtie) pasta. Now be forewarned. If you do make a whole pound of pasta, this salad will feed an army. Cook pasta in salted water to al dente, drain, cool completely. You can toss with a little olive oil while it's cooling if you like, to keep it from sticking together.

Now the good stuff. First up, half a pound of pitted Kalamata olives, sliced.


A whole pint of grape tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes if you like), sliced.


Then a small jar of marinated artichoke hearts. They are usually already sliced, but I slice them in half again. Sometimes even more if it's particularly big.




You will also need a full 9 oz. bag of spinach. I made this before I went to the farmers market so I used the bagged pre-washed spinach.


And then, a 5 oz. container of crumbled Feta cheese.



Now the dressing. This is a very simple Balsamic vinaigrette. The salad is so chock full of flavors you don't need to bog the dressing down with too much. One half cup Balsamic vinegar to one cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This is actually double the amount of dressing I usually make, but this salad is big and needs it. Add salt and pepper to the dressing, to taste. Remember you put olives in this salad so you may not need as much salt as you think.

Mix well and the spinach will start to wilt into the salad.



It's great as a side dish or on it's own. It's fantastic with some grilled chicken added. Feel free to leave out whatever you may not like. If you don't like Feta, try using cubes of mozzarella instead. If you don't like Kalamata's, by all means use an olive you do like. A lemon citronette (lemon juice, Dijon, olive oil) instead of the Balsamic vinaigrette would be delish too. Play with it. It's really really yummy.

Zucchini Boats, the Fall Version

OK, so it's not really zucchini boats, it's Acorn Squash Boats. They are very similar but a very different experience. Start with a medium sized acorn squash. You will need one half for each person you are serving. Cut in half and dig out all the seeds. Brush flesh with olive oil, then salt and pepper. Place on a cookie sheet, cut side down and bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. The flesh should be starting to caramelize.

In the meantime, take one leek, cleaned thoroughly, then chopped. Put it in a saute pan with about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Add about half a pound of sausage, crumble and cook. Add salt and pepper, and herbs if you wish.



You want to cook this mixture thoroughly because it is not going back into the oven. Make sure the mixture is not too liquidy, it should just start to brown and the pan should be dry of liquid.

When sausage mixture is done, mix in about 1/2 cup of feta cheese. Take squash out of the oven and invert one half onto each plate then fill with the sausage mixture. YUMMY!