All things "Éllines"

In honour of all things Greek, I decided to make spanakopita for dinner tonight.  Okay, it didn't actually start off as Greek Fest but rather an opportunity to use the filo pastry that I had taken out of the freezer to thaw earlier today (yes, I'm a bloggin' opportunist!).  I knew I wanted to make Brie cheese wrapped in filo (also spelled phyllo) pastry for Sarah to eat with Granny Smith apples (it's delicious!) but I needed another dish for the remaining filo pastry so I decided on spanakopita, a Greek spinach pie. 

While preparing the spanakopita, my mind started to wander (big surprise!) and I ended up mentally listing everything and anything Greek that I could think of, and this is what I came up with:

Unfortunately, my first thought turned into a rant and it went something like this:

Mmmmmmm….Greek salad!  Must make Greek salad soon!  Why do restaurants insist on adding lettuce to a Greek salad?  Don’t they know that there’s no lettuce in horiatiki salata (okay so that wasn't in my original rant but I was thinking "wouldn't it be nice to know the Greek word for Greek salad for this rant?" so I looked it up)!!!  Horiatiki salata (now I can't stop saying it!) includes tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, green pepper, feta cheese and kalamata olives…opa!!!  That means there's no romaine or iceburg lettuce included (got it?)! My Greek dressing includes olive oil, lemon, oregano and garlic (the more garlic, the better!) but I'm not quite sure what ingredients make up an authentic Greek dressing (must research!). Not that I’m an expert on all things Greek (ahem!) but once you have an authentic Greek salad, you can’t go back  :P

Okay, I believe that was my rant for the day! I can't help but wonder if Rick Mercer would be proud of my rant?!?  If you're not familiar with our Canadian treasure, Rick Mercer, check out his website or go directly to his weekly rant.  Yeah, my rant was pretty pathetic compared to Mr. Mercer's brilliant rants but nonetheless, mine was still a rant! 

So back to my list of all things Greek (in the actual order that they came to my mind, as much as I can remember anyways!):

• Greek men (just sayin’!)
• Greek gods (I don’t think this is the same as the previous entry, right?) and goddesses (equal opportunities, ahem!)
• Apollo (he’s a Greek god, right?)
• Greek mythology (can someone recommend a good book about Greek mythology?)
• A yummy Greek-Canadian that can be seen on CBC Television (he must be seen!), George Stroumboulopoulos (I’m sensing a pattern here!)
• Olives and olive branch (phew...the pattern has been broken!)
• Nia Vardalos (another Greek-Canadian...just sayin'!)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding (movie starring the aforementioned!)
• The top 3 philosophers of all time are all Greek:  Plato, Socrates, Aristotle
• Greek language (it sounds beautiful and hopefully one day I will learn how to speak it!)
• Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Lambda, Theta, Kappa, Phi, Pi, Sigma, Omega (that’s all I know, okay?  I was writing each of those Greek numerals in my head so doesn’t that count for something? But then again, I probably lost points for not getting them in order though, right?  It's probably equivalent to counting like this: 1, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 5, 10.)
• Sororities (don't they all have Greek names?) and movies about sororities (Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Old School...can you think of others?)
• Feta cheese
• Greek men (oops…I guess I already said that!)
• Tzaziki
• Souvlaki
• Greece (duh!)
• Athens
• Meditteranean
• Archimedes (one of the greatest mathematicians of all time!)
• Pythagoras (Pythagorean theorem…need I say more?)
• Olympics
• Greek yogurt
• Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Lena goes to Greece in the first movie!)
• Alexander the Great (he was Greek wasn’t he? I also think that he was Aristotle’s student.)
• Iliad by Homer (it’s about the Trojan War and that’s Greek!)
• I believe Odyssey was also written by Homer (Note to self: I must put both of these books on my “to be read” list!)
• Zorba the Greek (I don’t remember the author’s name but I’m sure he’s Greek!  Note to self:  add to my “to be read” list!)
• Achilles heel (named after a Greek god or something, right?)
• Aphrodite (my hero!)

Aphrodite
Goddess of Love, Beauty and Sexuality

Believe it or not, all of those thoughts consumed me while I prepared the spanakopita!  Manipulating those filo leaves was not easy but thoughts of Greek men things got me through it :)

So what are your favourite Greek “things”?  Do you have a favourite Greek recipe?  Or maybe a favourite piece of Greek literature?  Can you recommend a good book about Greek mythology?  Do you have a favourite Greek god or goddess? 

Okay, okay, I’ll get to what you’ve been eagerly awaiting…the spanakopita recipe!  I stole found the recipe on the following website:  www.theveggietable.com/recipes/spanakopita.html

Spanakopita

A classic vegetarian recipe from Greece: a rich and delicious spinach-cheese pie.

Yields:  8 servings

Time: 1½ hours (so worth it!)

Ingredients:

½ cup olive oil

2 cup onion, minced

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon oregano

2½ pounds fresh spinach, cleaned and de-stemmed

5 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoon flour

1 pound feta cheese, crumbled

1 c ricotta or cottage cheese

1 T black pepper

1 pound filo pastry leaves (I used the organic filo pastry leaves from The Fillo Factory and they were relatively easy to work with)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Sauté onion, salt, basil, and oregano in 2 T oil for 5 minutes.
3. Add spinach and cook over high heat for at least 5 minutes, until spinach becomes limp.
4. Turn down to medium, stir in garlic and flour, and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese and pepper. Taste and add more salt and pepper as desired.
6. Lay out a sheet of filo in the baking dish (it will overlap the sides). Brush with oil, lay another on top, brush with oil, and repeat for a total of 8 sheets. (in order to keep the unused filo leaves from drying out, I keep a damp towel over them while I work)
7. Spread half of the spinach mixture over the dough. Lay out another 8 sheets of filo as above. Spread the rest of the spinach on top, then lay out the rest of the filo.
8. Brush the top with oil and tuck the filo sheets into the pan.
9. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes, until golden-brown and crispy.

Apoláf̱sei (enjoy!)



Spanakopita


For those of you interested in Brie cheese wrapped with filo pastry, all you have to do is layer as many filo leaves as you want one on top of the other but make sure to brush melted butter on each layer before you wrap the Brie with the filo.  Make sure the cheese is well wrapped or else all of the cheese will ooze out of the pastry before it's ready to be eaten!  Once you've wrapped the cheese, brush melted butter on the outside of the filo pastry then put it in the oven at 375ºF for 30 minutes.  Brush the pastry every 10 minutes with melted butter.  Serve with apples (our favourite apples with Brie pastry are the Granny Smiths).  


Brie cheese wrapped in filo pastry, served with Granny Smith apples


"The woman who doesn't wish to bake bread, spends five days sifting." ~ Greek Proverb

"Wine and children speak the truth." ~ Greek Proverb

P.S. I have some leftover filo dough....baklava, anyone?  Or maybe we could go from Greek to French-Canadian and make some yummy petes de soeurs?  Either way, I'm still sugarless so I guess that's a no for me :(