easy as pie

Posted by trish on Aug 23, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

My friend Ann gave me this recipe ages and ages ago, and I finally made it this week because I’m trying to cook more vegetarian meals.  And there’s nothing better than a vegetarian meal that also contains three different kinds of cheese.  Am I right?

Let me start by saying that this pie is ridiculously easy and yet it looks so impressive.  My mother used to make spinach pie the traditional way – you know, layers and layers of filo pastry with armfuls (arms-full?) of spinach she’d brought in from the garden.  Clearly that woman had too much time on her hands, what with her four children.

I took a quick look at Ann’s recipe and decided that there would be enough for a couple of pies if I just added another egg and a little more cheese.  Turns out I was right.  This is one of those recipes that can be tweaked quite a bit, ingredients-wise, just as long as you maintain the egg/milk : filling ratio.  I reckon you could do this as a quiche lorraine using bacon, perhaps some mushrooms, throw in some baby spinach… just maintain that egg/milk quantity so you do actually end up with something that looks vaguely pie-ish.

So this is Ann’s recipe with a couple of tweaks.  Thanks Ann!

ANN’S COUNTRY SPINACH AND FETA PIE

(serves 6 as an entree, or 4 for dinner)

250g packet frozen spinach, thawed (zap frozen spinach in microwave on high for 4 mins then strain in sieve to drain away the water)

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

100g feta cheese, crumbled

100g haloumi cheese, roughly chopped

2 shallots or green onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

3 eggs

1/2 cup cream (or milk)

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Line two oven trays with baking paper.

Squeeze excess liquid from spinach.  In a medium bowl, combine the spinach, parmesan, feta, haloumi, shallots, garlic and nutmeg.  Stir well.

In a small jug, whisk the eggs and milk/cream together.  Season with salt and pepper if you like.

Place a pastry sheet on each tray.  Trim the corners to make a circle.  Divide the spinach mixture in half and put half in the middle of each pastry round, then flatten out with the back of a fork, leaving a 4cm border all the way around.

Fold the sides of the pastry up around the filling to encase.

At first, I just folded four sides up and pinched the corners.  This is wrong, I think.  You should fold up a little at a time, squeezing the pastry together so it’s sorta pleated.)  Then fill each pie with the egg/milk mixture.  You might need to coax the egg into the corners.Here’s a picture since I suck at giving descriptions:

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden.  Actually, this took about 15 minutes in my oven, so if I were you I’d check it after 15 and see how it looks.

A few minutes after you take it out of the oven it will expel most of the hot air that makes it looks so light and fluffy in the middle, and you’ll be left with something that looks much more like a rustic quiche than a country pie.  I’m pretty sure the taste is still as good.

Go forth and bake!