Spanakopita - A foray into Greek cuisine

Although I really enjoy Greek food I very rarely cook it. Greek food is simple and healthy using fresh vegetables and herbs, fish and meat, it shares many of the characteristics of my favourite cuisine of all -Italian- most notably it's wide use of olives and olive oil.

Clearly something had to be done about my lack of Greek cooking experience, and what better place to start than with one of Greece's most famous dishes, Spanakopita.Spanakopita is a spinach and feta pie made using filo pastry. Filo, meaning leaf or sheet is a type of pastry that unlike other pastries comes in wafer thin sheets which are layered up before being filled and baked. The resulting pastry is very light and wonderfully crispy and crunchy.

Normally I would make my own pastry but when it comes to filo there's no shame in buying it ready made. For the filling I used spinach, feta, spring onions, dill, eggs and a little nutmeg, it's probably not very authentic but hey, it if tastes good...

Ingredients:
A packet of filo pastry
olive oil
A couple of handfuls of spinach blanched, chopped and excess water squeezed out.
A small bunch of dill chopped
2 eggs
2oog feta crumbled
5-6 large spring onions/scallions, chopped
A grating of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Tip: Once you have opened the packet of filo you should keep it covered with a damp tea towel to stop it drying out - it dries out really fast!

• For the filling mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, season and set aside.
• Take a baking dish and lightly brush with olive oil, lay a sheet of filo on top and brush with oil. lay another sheet over the first and continue to layer up. Filo sheet, oil, filo sheet, oil until half the pastry is gone.
• Fill the lined dish with the spinach mixture and top with the remaining pastry brushing each sheet with a little oil as you go.
• Bake at a medium heat about 180c until golden and crispy.
• Serve with buttered new potatoes and steamed vegetables.
  

Souvlaki

My knowledge of authentic Greek food is extremely limited, in fact everything I know could probably be wirtten on the back of a postage stamp. I've had Greek salad, olives and moussaka, I really like taramasalata and I love a chunk of crumbly Feta, but beyond that I draw a blank.

At least I did draw a blank, but now I can add one more dish to the list. Souvlaki.

Souvlaki are pieces of meat -traditionally pork- which are marinaded and threaded onto skewers for barbecuing or grilling, the word souvlaki comes from the word souvla which means skewer.
To make souvlaki cubes of pork are marinated in a mixture of red wine or red wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon and oregano, they have a very 'fresh' flavour and are surprisingly light. They would be perfect for the upcoming barbecue party season, it's the kind of food you can pass round on a big platter for everyone to dig in and help themselves.

I served mine with some delicious vegetable rice which was so good it's worthy of a post all of it's own, you could serve this with pita, flat-breads or cous cous equally well.

Although this recipe is all my own I should give credit once again to the fantastic River Cottage Meat Book and to Kalofagas for inspiration.

Recipe: (serves four)

• About 800g pork cut into one inch cubes. I used the shoulder cut because 1)it's cheaper 2) it's got more flavour. You can use whatever you like though.

For the marinade:

• A good half a glass of red wine.
• 4 Tablespoons of olive oil.
• The finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon.
• A lot of dried oregano, about 6 tablespoons or more if you like.
• Salt and pepper.

To make souvlaki simply mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large non-metallic bowl, add the pork and mix well then cover and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Thread the pork onto skewers and cook either on a hot barbecue or on a smoking hot griddle. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and rice or salad.

Greek style roast cod

I'm not really sure what's "Greek" about this dish, it seems more Italian style to me, but then I didn't name it! What I do know is that it's delicious, it contains some of my all-time favourite ingredients, fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes and black olives.
To make it I sliced some potatoes and red onions and layered them in a baking dish. I then poured over a stock made from the basil and sun dried tomatoes blended to a paste and mixed with boiling water. This was poured over the potatoes which I then baked for half an hour.

Once the potatoes were cooked they had become infused with a the flavour of basil and tomato and smelt wonderful!

Finally I sprinkled the potatoes with chopped black olives, laid my fish on top each with a slice of lemon then baked it for a further 10 minutes.
One of the great things about this recipe is that it only uses one pot and I'm all for less washing up!

I should point out that although the original recipe calls for Cod I actually used a type of fish called Coley which is very similar. Not only is Coley more sustainable and not over fished like Cod, it is also substantially cheaper. I really can't taste much difference between them and I certainly reccomend it as an alternative. Another fish you could try is Pollock which is also very cheap and really tasty.

The original recipe is by Silvana Franco and can be found here.