my first few days in the blogging community have been great so far! i’ve been exposed to so many people who love the same things i do, and in that process i stumbled upon this recipe for spinach and feta pie on rosa’s yummy yums blog!
Whole Wheat Spinach and Feta Pie
Recipe by Rosa Mayland, October 2012.
Serves 4-6/makes a 24cm pie.
Ingredients For The “Whole Wheat Shortcrust Pastry”:
380g Whole wheat flour
1 2/3 Tsps Fine sea salt
100g Lard, cold & cut into small cubes
90g Unsalted butter, cold & cut into small cubes
Enough water to blend (~90-100ml)
1 Beaten egg, for glazing the top of the pie
Ingredients For The “Filling”:
1 Tbs Olive oil
3 Medium onions, chopped finely
4 Cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 1/2 Tsp Dried dill
600g Frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry and chopped finely
3 Eggs (~63g)
250g Ricotta
250g Feta, finely chopped
50g Mature Gruyère, cut into small cubes
Pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste
Method For The “Shortcrust Pastry”:
1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl/bassin.
2. Add the lard and butter. Rub between the fingers until the mixture is flaky.
3. Pour in the water, gradually, while continuously cutting and stirring with a knife (stop adding water when the dough is stiff – it should not be sticky or wet). Gather up into a soft ball and place it in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
Method For The “Filling”:
4. In a hot frying pan/skillet, add the oil and chopped onion. Fry until translucid.
5. Add the garlic and dill. Cook for another minute.
6. Add the spinach and stir-fry for about 5 minutes.
7. Put the mixture in a big bowl and let cool completely.
8. Incorporate the eggs, ricotta, feta and Gruyère to the spinach mixture.
9. Salt and pepper to taste.
Method For “Assembling The Pie”:
10. Heat the oven to 200°C (400° F).
11. Roll out 2/3 of the pastry and line the base of a 24cm (9 1/2 inches) pie plate.
12. Fill with the spinach mixture and brush the edges of the pastry with water.
13. Roll out the remaining dough (1/3) and cover the pie.
14. Press the edges of the pastry to seal and trim off the excess.
15. With the remaining pastry, decorate the pie top as desired (leaves, flowers, et…).
16. Prick the top of the pastry case to allow steam to escape and glaze the top with the beaten egg
17. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden.
18. Serve.
when i was making this recipe i did improvise a little bit; i used regular bleached flour and shortening for the pastry instead of whole wheat flour and lard because i didn’t have either on hand! i also added fingerling potatoes (the cute purple and red ones!) to the filling because i didn’t have enough spinach! i’ve never made homemade pie crust before this and although in the end it tasted delicious, it looked far from pretty when i was trying to roll it out. so i ended up rolling the dough back into a ball and pressing it into my pie plate by hand and rolling the left over dough the best i could for the top. it ended up looking very rustic for lack of a better word! i also had a side of leftover corned beef hash from st. patricks day which is a recipe of my fathers that i will share with you all soon!
the food trollop 