Prasopitta...or Leek Pie

Greece is home to one of the world’s great fast foods: Small Pies…. or in Greek, Pittas. Perhaps the best known are Cheese pies (Tyropitta) and Spinach pies (Spanakopitta). Widely available in convenient ‘hand size’ pieces, they both make a wonderful snack lunch… or a basis for a fuller meal. But you can find all sorts of variations and fillings too. One of my own favourites when I can find it is a Prasopitta, or Leek Pie. Here’s my own take on this particular pie…. with embellishments.

2 Medium size Leeks

1 Clove Garlic

1 large egg

120/150g Graviera Cheese. Actually, any good hard cheese will probably do.

200/220g filo pastry (5/6 sheets)

Olive oil

100/120g bacon

Black Pepper

1/2 tbl spoon of double cream

Clean and chop the Leeks and fry gently to tenderise for about 10/15 minutes in a little Olive Oil. Chop the Garlic and add to the pan after about 5 minutes. Stir from time to time and don’t allow the leeks to burn.

Meanwhile, grate the Cheese into a bowl, add the Egg and stir together. Chop the Bacon, I use 3 or 4 thin slices chopped to about 1cm square. Add to the cheese mixture and give it four or five twists of fresh ground Black Pepper.

Once the leeks have tenderised, add them to the mix and stir everything together. Finally, stir on a couple of generous tablespoons of double cream. Check the seasoning. With the cheese and bacon present, you should not need to add any salt…. Adjust to your taste though.

Build your pie on a well greased baking tray. Lay down one sheet of Filo Pastry, brush it with Olive Oil (melted butter will do just as well, just not so healthy!) and then lay a second sheet of pastry over the first. Repeat for a third sheet. It’s important to keep the sheets of pastry well oiled and not to let them dry out at this stage.

Then spread the pie filling onto the centre of the base and work it into the shape you want. Try to achieve an even thickness of 1 to 1 and a half cm. This will leave a wide flap of layered pastry exposed all around the filling.

Now wrap the filling, just like a parcel. I usually fold in the ends and then wrap the sides over the top. Once the pie is closed I use any remaining sheets of pastry to wrap the pie in the opposite direction, again keeping the pastry well oiled and tucking the flaps of pastry underneath. Be carful when working with the pastry; the wafer thing filo sheets can tear and break quite easily. Don’t worry too much if they won’t lie flat. The folds and creases in the pastry add character and texture!

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 180C for about 1 hour. The finished pie should be a rich golden brown in colour with the top layer of pastry starting to flake away.

Despite the temptation, allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before eating.  This pie should make 4 to 6 servings. It is great hot, warm or, if it lasts that long it’s good to eat cold too. 

Simple Pleasures

Now I’m a Coffee lover. Unashamed and unrepentant. A strong Greek coffee with breakfast, an Espresso or a Filter Coffee later in the morning, maybe an Iced Coffee in warmer weather.

Several years ago we start to get flavoured coffees in Europe. Courtesy of Starbucks? Maybe at the particular time, but the idea is by no means original. Serving coffee flavoured with a spice such as Cardamom has long been popular in the Middle East. Not something I want everyday, but a pleasant change to make and drink on occasion.

And you don’t need to buy those jars of flavoured syrup to do it. Flavoured coffee is so easy to make. Just simply add a teaspoon of whatever spice takes your fancy to your coffee maker.

My beat up old Espresso maker has seen many years of service and makes a wonderful coffee. But it adds a whole new dimension if I add teaspoon of …. 

Take your pick: Cinnamon or Ground Ginger work really well. Experiment a bit to get the level right. Or grind the seeds of two or three Cardamom pods and add those to the coffee.

The same trick works just as well if you add you choice of spice to your cafetiere or the filter of your drip coffee maker.

By process of elimination, I keep coming back to Cinnamon, Ginger or Cardamom, but there are whole load of potential variations and flavours I haven't yet tried. Must try adding Chilli sometime… haven’t dared take that step yet.

Be bold! Experiment!

Chick Peas to you

Chickpeas (or Garbanzo Beans…. Or in Greece, Ρεβίθια (that’s Revithia), are a winter favourite here in Greece. Cooked with onions, lemon and Olive Oil they make a good warming and nutritious dish.

This is my slightly un-(Greek) orthodox twist on Chickpea Soup.

Ingredients:

Chickpeas. I use a coffee mug full of dried chickpeas to make two main course servings. This would easily serve 4 as an appetiser course

A handful of dried Mushrooms.

1 medium size Onion

1 clove of Garlic

1 teaspoon of fresh ground Coriander seeds

Half a cup of chopped Mint

Half a teaspoon of hot Paprika (just enough to give the soup a warming ‘bite’)

Salt to taste

Juice of half a Lemon

Olive oil

Handful of fresh Dill

Fresh ground black Pepper

First up, soak your Chickpeas if using them from dried. Cover in fresh water and leave to stand overnight (at least 12 hours)

Soak the Mushrooms. Break or chop them into small pieces and soak in 500ml of boiling water. Allow to stand for about 15 minutes before using.

Heat some oil over medium heat in a large saucepan, rough chop and fry the Onion and add a roughly chopped clove of Garlic after 2 or 3 minutes. Fry for five minutes or so.

Drain the Chickpeas (if using dried ones) and add them to the pan. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes, stirring them into the onion and oil mixture. Then add the Mushrooms with the water they have been soaking in.

As the mix heats up add the Coriander, Paprika, Salt, Lemon Juice and Mint. I often use dried mint, crumbling a large pinch of dried leaves into the pan.

Stir everything together making sure the chickpeas are fully covered by the water adding a little more if necessary. Check the taste, adding salt as needed.

Cover and allow to come to the boil. Then turn the heat down and leave to simmer… for a long time. The cooking time depends on how al dente you like your chickpeas. A minimum of 1 hour, although for this soup I normally let them cook around 90 minutes.  I was served a more traditional version of this dish once where the lady doing the cooking had literally cooked the chickpeas to pulp; I shudder to think how many hours that took.

One the chickpeas are cooked…..

Use a potato masher to coarsely mash them in the pan. Don’t go crazy with this and if half the chickpeas escape the process then that’s fine. I think this soup works best when there is plenty of texture left.

Then ladle about half of the mixture, liquid, chickpeas, bits of mushroom and so on into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour this ‘smoothied’ part of the mix back into the pan and stir everything together to make the final soup.

Serve in soup bowls with a little virgin Olive Oil drizzled over the surface, a grind of fresh Black Pepper and finish off with a garnish of fresh chopped Dill.

Add a glass or two of retsina and some fresh crusty bread and you won’t want to go anywhere for the rest of the day.

All the leftovers become.... Veggie Burgers!

Now I make about a litre of Almond milk every three days or so (see below) and Christiane feeds copious amounts of vegetables into the juicer from time to time. Both these activities produce wonderful things to drink…. And lots of leftovers. Like Almond and Vegetable pulp respectively. I always think it’s a shame to just throw this stuff away; there’s still so much nutrition and flavour in there.

I’ve already written about making a very tasty hummus* from Almond pulp and you can also make a passable cheese alternative from it (there’s a recipe for that here: www.thegreekbite.com)

But for something different try this twist on a veggieburger….

I use a cup and half of Almond pulp and the same amount of Vegetable pulp to make six burgers. This time around the vegetable pulp was beetroot and carrot… next time? Who knows? There is no fixed formula here.

Add one egg, a tablespoon of tahini, two tablespoons of Olive oil, a chopped onion, a cup of fine chopped celery, some fine chopped dill, a little salt, pepper, a teaspoon of ground coriander and a little Garam Masala.

Vary the spices according to your taste. These work for me.

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly. You need to have a stiff paste that will hold together so if it is too moist then add a little more vegetable pulp. Leave the mixture to stand for half an hour or so before cooking.

Form the mix into burger sized patties, dust with flour and cook on a very hot griddle for about five minutes each side. It helps to oil the griddle plate lightly and even to drizzle a little oil over the burgers as they cook.

My personal opinion is that veggie burgers often taste nice but can be dry and have a bland texture. The tahini keeps to them moist and adding the onion and celery along with the raw vegetable pulp helps to vary the texture. As with everything, experiment and twist it round to your own liking!

* Since writing that recipe I have learned that ‘Hummus’ is in fact an Arabic word for chickpea. My dip has no chickpeas in it so I guess I’ll have to rename it. Hey ho….

Magic! How to get 4 Onions into one jar.

Sometime ago I was picking up some stuff in a supermarket in England when I spotted a jar of ‘Caramelised Onions’. Hmmm… nice idea, I thought and brought them home to my Greek island.

4 medium Onions. 1 small jar

When the jar was opened, they disappeared so quickly that Christiane and I were left rueing the idea of having to wait until our next trip to abroad; or at least to one of the big supermarkets in Athens for another jar.

Not so! They are actually very easy to make……

For the jar in the picture I use 4 medium size onions.

Peel and chop them fairly coarsely.

Use a lightly oiled frying pan that is large enough to spread them out on and cook on a medium heat. You need to turn the onions from time to time to stop them catching and burning on the pan but try not to do this too often otherwise they don’t brown nicely. I usually check them every 10 minutes or so.

Seasoning. I use honey for the caramelising but I guess plain old sugar will do the job too. One good teaspoon of honey per onion and I add this after they have been cooking for 15 minutes. Add the honey straight into the pan and stir it in.

The whole cooking process takes around an hour although this does vary according to the onions so do keep an eye on them. If it looks like they are cooking too fast then turn the heat down a little; they need that time on the heat to really soften and brown.

After about 45 minutes I add the final ingredient; a couple of teaspoons of Balsamic vinegar. This helps to deglaze the pan, adds a little more colour and a twist to the flavour too.

Test the onions as the time ticks by and they soften and occupy less and less of the pan. Try to leave some for later and for guests though!

When you are happy with the result, remove the pan from the heat, allow to cool and then spoon the onions into a jar.

They are just great with cheese, in an omelette or a salad and adding a spoonful can just transform anyone of a host of savoury dishes. Be bold and experiment!

Da da!

Keep them in the fridge. How long you can store them? That is something I cannot answer. I read somewhere that they would keep for a week. I have no idea if that is true because for me, actually the real magic is just how quickly those onions disappear from the jar!

Principles. Start at the Very Beginning

Many years ago I invited a friend to dinner and decided to cook a risotto. I knew that this friend had spent a lot of time in Italy and I was confident that she would be impressed with my culinary prowess.

Wrong!

As I was to learn, this lady was pretty uncompromising in her views. She scowled through the meal and eventually announced that if I was ever to cook a risotto for her again then I had better find out how to make one properly.  

Briefly offended, I listened and soon realised that what she said made sense. I was trying to go full speed in the kitchen without having understood the basic controls. Like… well when I was about 14, I taught myself to play the opening 10 bars or so of a Beethoven piano sonata. Nothing more than that. I could play it passably well too, but the 11^th bar forever remained a mystery, as did just about every other piece of piano music…. Because at the end of the day I never did learn the basics of piano playing.

I hunted around and found a good Italian recipe for a Risotto Milanese….. and invited her around again.

Success! 

In fact I learned a lot from that experience. On the Risotto front, it had never occurred to me that the base recipe was so simple, that the type of rice was so important, that you put all that cheese in at the end of the cooking.

But once I had mastered that I was able to expand my vision and build my own variations…. But this time from a solid foundation. I’ve repeated the same exercise many times since with other dishes, learning traditional recipes and methods and literally working from the ground up.

Don’t just open that jar of sauce or ready mixed powder. Find out how the basic traditional recipe works. You’ll probably be surprised at how simple and easy it is.

Here’s one variation on those basic Risotto principles….

Spetses Wild Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto

This is a good meal for two or perhaps a starter for four people.

250gr. Arborio Rice (Arborio Rice is traditionally used in Italy; but not in my local super market. I use a medium grain Greek variety called Karolina which is very similar).

Vegetable Stock/Dried Mushrooms.

1 medium sized onion

Wild Mushrooms

Wild Asparagus

Graviera Cheese

Vegetable Oil.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

I use a commercial vegetable stock cube and add several dried forest mushrooms broken up into small pieces before adding 500ml of boiling water and leaving it all to soak for at least fifteen minutes before adding it to the pan.

Heat a little oil in a good sized saucepan, finely chop the onion and fry for a few minutes in the oil.

Once the onion starts to soften, add the rice (it’s about one coffee mug full if you don’t want to weigh it) and stir it until it gets a good covering of the hot oil. Now start to add the stock along with half a teaspoon of salt and some fresh ground black pepper. Most books will tell you to add the stock bit by bit, stirring as it gets absorbed by the rice. Okay, I shortcut that bit and tend to throw in most of the stock in one go! It works, but do keep an eye on progress and don’t let the mix get too dry. Once all the stock is in the pan, if you do need to add more liquid then fresh water will do just fine. Cover and cook on medium heat.

Wash and chop the mushrooms and asparagus. Now I realise that you may not be lucky enough to find either in the wild in which case substitute at the market. The stems of Wild Asparagus I find around my home are very small by comparison to those that are commercially grown but they are full of flavour. 

Quantities? A couple of medium sized mushrooms and a good handful of chopped Asparagus should suffice for this amount of rice.

Seasoning. During cooking, it is best to under salt a risotto. You will be adding a lot of cheese at the end of the cooking and this will add it’s own saltiness to the flavour.

If you are using shop bought mushrooms or harder textured wild ones, add them to the pan after rice has been cooking for about 5 minutes. Otherwise add the asparagus and mushrooms together after about 15 minutes.

Test the rice every few minutes after the first 15 minutes of cooking. Take it off the heat when it is just at that ‘al dente’ point; probably after about 20 minutes. Make sure the mix is not too dry and if necessary add water. Now add the cheese.

I use Greek Graviera hard white cheese from the island of Crete. In Italy they usually use Parmesan or Pecorino. They all work well; adjust according to taste or availability. You need a good handful of cheese, coarsely grated, whatever variety you opt for. Stir it into the risotto, cover and leave to stand for another 5 minutes or so. The whole lot will go on cooking steadily during that time, which is why you don’t want the rice too soft when you add the cheese. Stir in a little more water before serving if the risotto is now too dry.

Serve and enjoy!

The Pulp of an Almond

So, you’ve made and enjoyed your Almond Milk (see my February 27 post). But now you’ve got a cup full of Almond Pulp/Paste left over. What are going to do with that? Throw it away? Seems like a shameful waste.

And indeed, although the pulp doesn’t have much taste to offer, there is a lot of nutritional value there; carbs, dietary fibre and fat. As with the milk itself… finding a consensus on just how much of each turns up some wildly varying opinions and numbers.

The pulp will work in many recipes that call for ground almonds, although be aware that it won’t impart that distinctive almond tang to your creation.

So….. type ‘Almond Pulp Recipes’ into Google and you’ll find quite a variety of ideas on how to use this up. Most of them I’ve found tend to be for sweet dishes…. Ice creams, cakes and so on. It works very well in place of the Carrots or Apple in any such cake.

But you can also use this pulp up in all sorts of other more savoury ways. I often stir a spoonful into a soup or use it to bulk out a pancake batter and sometimes a whole cupful might go to add texture to a curry.

My favourite is the ‘Hummus’ recipe below. And if you can’t find a use for the pulp on the day you make it…. Well, it freezes well for future use.

Almond Hummus

Fresh strained Almond Pulp.  This is fine used moist, no need to dry it out in the oven or anything!

Tahini

Oil (Olive or Sesame)

Ground Coriander

1 or 2 Cloves of Garlic

Salt (optional to taste)

Method. Is oh, so simple. Put everything in a bowl and mix!

Seriously, add enough Tahini to make a stiff paste with the Almond pulp.

Crush and add the garlic plus teaspoon or so of Coriander and stir together. You may wish to add salt to taste… personally I don’t.

Then slowly add oil (Sesame or Virgin Olive Oil) as you stir until get to the texture you want. There are no rules on this. I like Hummus that will spread easily with a knife, others like it drier or more liquid…. Your call.

Tip. Make this at least a day before you want to use it. This gives the flavours a chance to really blend together.

Put in sealable container and it will keep in the fridge for ages. But be warned, if you use a plastic container you may never be able to use it for anything without garlic in it ever again!