Κυριακή 23 Νοεμβρίου 2014

GREEK RECIPES: WILD GREENS PIE

by.George Portokalakis

HOME COOKING STEP BY STEP

STRIFTOPITA: SPIRAL WILD GREENS PIE

A traditional Greek pie made of thin handmade pastry and filled fresh wild greens or spinach

Sweet memories frommy grand mother and my mother made this savoury pie of greens, herbs, from afamily recipe. My sister and my wife have taken the charge to make it thepresent days:

Greens and herbs are the secret to a successful and fragrant hortopita. In Crete, we have access to a big variety of greens year round so we can enjoy this hearty, nutritious meal any time. (Spinach, fennel leaves, leeks, nettles, dandelion sorrels, white beets, endive leaves, wild chicory, spring onions, dill, parsley, coriander) You can use some of them or all of them at same time.

The combination of greens for this pie (pita = pie), include dandelion, sorrel and white beet greens combine with plenty of green onions and fennel leaves coarsely chopped, parsley and dill, olive oil, salt and pepper and the aromas of Cretan countryside will fill your kitchen.

Needed:

Filling

1000g wild greens and spinach

1 bunch fennel leaves

4-5 spring onions

1 cup finely chopped dill

1 1/2 cup olive oil (1 for the filling + 1/2 for sprinkle before taking the pie in the oven

salt and pepper

Dough:

2 cups flour (1 cup = 250g)

3 tbls olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Rinse the greens well before adding to the pot. Chop greens and scallions into bite size pieces. You don’t want pieces that are too long in your pie. It just makes the pie harder to eat.

Once the greens are chopped, place the greens in the pan.

Add the olive oil, salt, pepper

and cook for approx 15 – 20 minutes or until the greens are wilted down to about a third of their original amount.

Remove pan from the heat and allow greens mixture to cool before use it to fill the pie.

I use a 36cm round pan to make the spiral green pie.

Phylo Dough:

Feel free to replace their homemade phylo (easy to make thought) with the store-bought variety and make the pie in a 36cm round baking pan.

It's important to note that the phylo dough doesn’t need to be the extremely thin version we see in pastries, but rather reasonably thin and easily worked dough rich in olive oil.

Mix all the ingredients together. Form long sausages with the rectangle pastry sheets.

Place them in rounds in the pan. We started our spyral from the centre.

Form the strips into a continuous spiral. When all the twists have been laid, pour on with olive oil (a completely vegan Lentel version)

Once the green rolls are placed in the pan bake the pita in 180 Celsius / 360 degree oven for approx 45-50 minutes.
At 20 minutes cooking time, open the oven and quickly, lightly sprinkle the top of the pie with water for a little bit of crunch.

Allow pie to sit for at least 20 minutes after coming out of the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature.

When you are ready to serve the pie, cut it in 5 pieces. The pie is meant to be eaten in spiral bits.

Questions? Feel free to contact: info@portoclub.gr

Παρασκευή 21 Νοεμβρίου 2014

GREEK RECIPES: CHRISTMAS HONEY COOKIES

by.George Portokalakis

HOME COOKING STEP BY STEP:

Melomakarona: Christmas Honey Cookies

Melomakarona are traditional Christmas cookies, wonderfully spiced and soaked in honey-based syrup. Sweet, delicious and addictive! Soft, dipped in honey syrup and covered with chopped walnuts and roasted sesame. One of the most popular treats during the Christmas Holidays and their smell makes every house smell just... Like Christmas!

Melomakarona is a dark, succulent cookie, juicy and dripping honey, walnuts and roasted sesame all over the place and are made with olive oil, honey, orange juice, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, spiced with cinnamon and a shot of brandy and flour. Soaked with simple syrup of honey and water. Walnuts and roasted sesame sprinkled on top

INGREDIENTS

For the dough (makes 50 - 55 bisquits)

1 1/2 cups (1 cup = 250g) olive oil

1/2 cup margarine (125g) (room temperature)

1 cup sugar (250g)

4 cups flour (1000g)

3/4 cup orange juice (200g)

1/2 cup brandy

2 tea spoon baking powder

1 tea spoon baking soda

1 tea spoon grated orange rind

1/2 cup wallnuts crushed

1 tea spoon cinnamon

For the syrup

2 cups honey

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

To Sprinkle:

5 table spoons sesame roasted

2 cups diced walnuts

1 tea spoon cinammon

DIRECTIONS

Mix the sugar, margarine and olive oil together and

whisk them to get a thin white paste.

Add the baking soda (dissolved in the orange juice),

the orange rind,

the baking powder,

the crushed walnuts,

brandy,

cinnamon

and the flour little by little

until we have a soft dough that doesn’t stick to the hands.

Let it stand for half an hour

and divide into small portions egg size

which you roll out into sticks 2 -3 cm wide, 6-7 cm long and 1 - 1 ½ cm thick a little thicker in the middle taking like an oval shape.

Bake the sticks at 180o C = 360 Far for approximately 10-15 minutes (depending the oven).

When done let them cool down

While they are cooling make the syrup.
While the syrup is boiling over low hit ip and soak the melomakarona one by one or two by two in the syrup for 1-2 minutes to absorb syrup and to moisten. Take them out with a slotted spoon