Spanakopida

Making this, really made me miss our neighbor from Australia, Georgia. She is from Greece and while we were down in Australia, we always traded food. One of my favorites was her Spanakopida. It's a spinach pie with feta, dill, and other herbs and spices. When we left, she gave me a "Women's Weekly Greek Cooking" cookbook. I was craving some of Georgia's food, so decided to make this. It did NOT taste like hers, but it was ok. I did not have enough spinach and I think that made a big difference, so don't cheat with the spinach.

Preparation Time: 35 minutes

Bake Time: 20 minutes

Note: This recipe is a more difficult recipe. You will need to thaw your fillo dough out for a day prior to making this. Also when working with fillo dough, you need to take one sheet off and place a damp cloth on the rest to prevent the dough from drying out. You could probably use puff pastry if you don't want to work with fillo dough. 

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds (.75 kg) silver beet, chopped (I just used spinach)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 medium brown onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 oz (110 grams) feta cheese

1/8 cup chopped fresh mint

1/8 cup parsley

1/8 cup fresh dill

2 green onions, chopped finely

8 sheets fillo pastry

2 ounces (60 g) butter, melted or olive oil

sesame seeds

*I halved the recipe to fit in an 8 by 8 pan. If you double this, it will make a 9 by 13 pan full. 

Instructions:

Microwave spinach (with a tablespoon of water and plastic wrap over it) until just wilted. Squeeze out excess moisture and drain on a towel. 

Heat oil in small frying pan and cook brown onion and garlic until onion is soft. Add nutmeg and stir until fragrant. 

Combine feta, herbs, and green onion with onion mixture and spinach.

Preheat oven to 350*F (180*C) and grease bottom of pan.

Place one fillo sheet in the pan. Brush the sheet with butter or olive oil (or spray with butter flavored cooking spray) and lay another sheet on top. DON'T SKIP THIS STEP. Your dough will not cook. Repeat the process for four layers.  

Add spinach mixture. Place fillo sheet on top and repeat the process above for four layers.

Butter the top and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake for 20 minutes or until browned lightly. 

Sorry I didn't take too many pictures, I kind of got caught up in the process of it. I thought I would let you know that I found fillo dough in the frozen foods isle where the cool whip and pie stuff was. Same place as the puff pastry.