We were in Venice for three days in 2005 .. a time so packed with experience that to my memory it feels like a week. From a small window in a wall along an alley off a street near La Salute we bought two slices of a vegetable pie that was the best thing either of us had ever eaten. I've nearly duplicated the filling (it had onions and zucchini and a lot of peppers in it) but never the crust... Not a tomato in sight. No garlic, either. And no taste of olive oil.
I've never been to Greece. I've been close .. but that's not the same. I do have a well-thumbed book of recipes by the Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society of Charleston, South Carolina, which represents a secondhand, second tier of nostalgia. The recipes are excellent. If we ever get to the Greek Islands I should be well prepared...
Greek food on a Monday evening. I had a lamb shoulder chop, a small eggplant and some spinach in the fridge. With the internet not far off, I found a lamb and eggplant stew, served in the shell of the eggplant. This brought the idea of Greece to the fore. And the spinach .. um .. Spanekotyropeta! If you can say it you can make it. A short trip to My Local Grocer for frozen phyllo and feta came next, followed by a somewhat longer period of wondering what I'd gotten myself into...
Looking over the recipes, I managed to eliminate half a cup of olive oil and three tablespoons of flour without blinking. I also took some time and trimmed the lamb very close into small cubes.
Two other preparation choices paid off handsomely. The original recipe for the eggplant involved scooping out the filling and chopping it in cubes. This is a lot more work than it sounds like. Instead, I roasted the two halves, the way you would for baba ghanouj (broil for half an hour, cut side down and the pulp just lifts out).
When it came to assembling the phyllo, I invented a new shortcut and sprayed the sheets with olive cooking spray instead of brushing with olive oil. Faster! More even! Much less frustrating, as brushing with oil inevitably wreaks havoc with the sheets of pastry. I made more layers faster.
Less effort than I feared, but no time for photographs: Nancy called, leaving work, while I was in the midst of assembling the spanekopeta (no, I didn't answer the phone .. them phyllo sheets dry out and flake off in a heartbeat .. but I did call back two minutes later). Dinner was on the table when she got home.
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| Cooking in Greece .. it's a slippery slope |
LAMB STEW IN A BAKED EGGPLANT BOAT
Ingredients:
1 med. eggplant
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 Roma tomato
1T tapenade
8 oz lbs. lamb stew, lean
1t oregano leaves
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1T flour
1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated
water
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Halve eggplant and broil, cut side down, for half an hour
Trim meat, dice tomato, chop onion
Saute diced lamb in water
Season with salt, pepper, and oregano
Scoop out eggplant
After 15 minutes, add tomato, onion, eggplant, tapenade and garlic and simmer for 10 minutes.
Dust with flour and stir while the mixture thickens
Add cold water and stir until a heavy stew has formed
Spoon stew into eggplant shells and top with grated Parmesan
Brown in oven
Makes 2 servings, each:
342 cal
20 carbs
SPANAKOTYROPETA
Ingredients:
1T olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb spinach, rinsed and chopped
1/2C parsley, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
8 sheets phyllo dough
olive pam
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
Spray pam in a 9x9 inch square baking pan
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat
Saute onion, green onions and garlic, until soft
Stir in spinach and parsley, and continue to saute until spinach cooks down
Set aside to cool then squeeze out moisture
Mix together eggs, ricotta, and feta and fold into spinach mixture
Take a deep breath
Lay 1 sheet of phyllo dough in prepared baking pan and spray with pam
Lay three more sheets of phyllo on top, spraying between layers
Spread spinach and cheese mixture into pan and fold overhanging dough over filling
Spray with pam
Layer remaining 4 sheets of phyllo dough then tuck overhanging dough into pan to seal filling.
Add layers depending on the amount of filling and phyllo
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes
Cut into squares and serve while hot.
Makes 3 servings, each:
440 cal
62 carb
In retrospect, I could have used a bit more salt and doubled the amount of garlic.
Image of Santorini used by permission:
http://historylink101.net/greece1/rf-b-santorini_island.htm
I wish I could take my own.
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