FYI: This is a lengthy post, you will find this weeks Cook Along challenge at the bottom.
This is what I know for sure: cooking is important. I believe in food, I believe in cooking, I believe in working for delicious, healthful and satisfying food. Cooking at home is cheaper than eating out and you will always know exactly what you’re eating.
And so the Cook Along (or cookalong) was born out of this belief. The belief that getting in the kitchen will somehow make me a better person. I know this to be true. There is a satisfaction that I cannot explain in words that comes to me when I’ve prepared a meal. Some strange force that makes me feel human and whole when I shop locally. Cooking makes me feel like I have the power to change my life and the world around me.
Our first recipe is called a Bosnian Pita (phyllo) with Spinach Filling. I first heard about this recipe from a readers travels to Bosnia. I fell in love with her pictures of this traditional dish. You can read more about it here (thanks Wikipedia!). Frankly, it looked delicious and I wanted to know how to make it.
Recipe is here: Bosnian Pita with Spinach Filling
My challenge for this recipe was to use at least one local or organic ingredient. I encouraged everyone who joined in to make this recipe to their taste.
While the steps may seem long it took me about 20 minutes to prepare and another 45 minutes to bake.
I began by sprinkling salt on local/organic spinach and set aside for 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes it up, take fists of spinach and begin squeezing out the water. There will be a lot of water! This step prevents the filling from being bitter. I found that microwaving the fresh spinach for 45 seconds helps in the wilting process.
In another bowl I mixed one local egg, 1/4 C sour cream, 1/2 lb. feta cheese, and one cup cheddar cheese. Mix spinach in.
I then rolled out one package of thawed phyllo dough and covered with a damp cloth to keep from drying out.
I then placed one phyllo sheet in a 9×13 pan and brushed with olive oil. Crumble the spinach/cheese mixture on top. I found that it didn’t spread well so I used my hands for this step.
Top with another sheet of phyllo. Brush with olive oil and repeat, layering with spinach and then phyllo dough, like lasagna, until you run out of filling. Make sure you finish with phyllo dough. I used about 3 more sheets of brushed dough to complete the dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
I skipped the last step of mixing milk and sour cream and pouring over top and baking for another 15 minutes.
Slice and eat! I have to say that I will most likely make this recipe again, but more for a special treat. I could see this making a nice appetizer. It’s delicious and impressive looking. Next time I would add less salt to the spinach as I found the filling to be a little too salty. I would also use 3-4 sheets of phyllo on the bottom before adding the filling. I loved the feta in this dish! It is also nice reheated.
I also thought the prep was minimal, it really only took a few minutes to put together before it was in the oven.
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My friend Ashley also participated via email, she made spinach pockets!
As soon as I saw Lorrie’s post on making spinach pie, I was in.
When we were young and living in Huntington, a town sadly devoid of any Greek restaurants, we would look forward to the city’s annual Greek festival every September. Spanakopita and baklava sundaes were my weakness. I never tried making it at home, though, because it seemed to be a multi-step process, not worth the time and effort in the end, because I’m not a huge spinach fan. But somehow, spinach in spanakopita is okay.
But Lorrie is one of my best friends, and because of the miles separating us, I always try to do things that she dreams up to keep us connected.
So on Sunday, I made some spinach pie.
I ended up buying puff pastry sheets instead of phyllo dough, mainly because I didn’t want to go to an actual grocery store on a Sunday. I bought some nice frozen organic spinach, sheep’s milk feta, a couple of organic lemons and some puff pastry sheets from Trader Joe’s. Then I headed home to make some pocket pies.
(Sidenote on the pocket pies: It’s known among my friends and boyfriend that I enjoy pretty much any type of food item in a pocket. Even Hot Pockets, embarrassingly enough. But burritos, empanadas, spring rolls, dumplings, etc – all of these things are more than welcome in my mouth. And I was planning for the spinach pie to serve as lunch while I was at work this week, so I wanted something easy to transport as well as easy to eat. And thus, pockets it is.)
I started by first thawing the spinach, then squeezing out the water handful by handful – this took awhile. Did you know spinach water is a nice shade of green? To this, I added a bit of light sour cream, crumbled feta, some part-skim mozzarella (not a lot of that), an egg, some salt and pepper, minced garlic and a zested and squeezed lemon. I thought the lemon might brighten up some of the flavors and add more of a Grecian taste to it. I rolled a sheet of puff pastry out just a little and cut into nine squares. A bit of filling, then I folded them over lengthwise and sealed with an egg wash. Baked at 400 degrees Farenheit for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry was golden brown.
As I said up above, I’m not a huge spinach fan. And honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of my pockets, mainly because I could reallllly taste the spinach. I should have used more feta – I barely used 2 ounces. But the lemon did add a nice tang. And they really transport well – I have a couple of nice, easy-to-transport lunches for the week, and that was my ultimate goal. Looking forward to Lorrie’s next cook-along!
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And a special thanks for all of you who joined in!
Krissie: Growl in my Tummy
Stacy: Race to Fit
Rachel: Treadmill Truth
LeAnn: Losing the Chunk
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January 27th Challenge!
Post Date: February 3rd 2011
Details: We will have one week to complete the recipe and then post (with photos) our results on the same day.
To make the recipe a little more fun I will post a challenge for the recipe such as: you must use an artichoke in your recipe, or use one local ingredient, or it must be made bento-box style. I encourage us all to make the recipe your own and find ways to make it work individually. For example: making it vegan, gluten-free, made with whole wheat pasta, make it miniature, deconstructed, change the filling, make it low calorie etc.
All you have to do is leave a comment in this post letting me know you’re in and I will link to your blog on reveal day!
Our assignment begins Thursday January 27th, making the following Thursday (the 3rd) is reveal day! You can make the recipe at any time during the week, just make sure you schedule your post for Thursday.
Here is this weeks recipe:
Greek Gyro!!
I’m sure we’ve all had these at one point or another. They are usually pita bread filled with lamb, beef or chicken and vegetables and topped with tzatziki sauce.
Challenge: You much make at least one component from scratch. This means, that you can make the meat filling, the pita bread or the tzatziki sauce yourself. Or you can go crazy and make them all! I did find beef gyro meat at a nearby ethnic food store, so it’s out there.
Here are some recipes: (you can use your own)
Gyro Meet with Tzatziki sauce- Alton Brown
Time to fire up those ovens!
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