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As you most likely have noticed, the days are short ’round this time of year. It’s pitch black by six o’clock at night and the weather is crisply cold. This would be the perfect time to wax romantic about some meaty, starchy holiday comfort food like burgundy beef stew, eggnog or butternut squash soup. Or not. Coming off of the Thanksgiving glut and into the holiday binge, the prospect of another gravy-rich meal sounds about as appetizing to me as seeing Ted Koppel naked. Seasonal cheer is all fine, but the sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour. So we’re doing a 180 for the holidays: Greek food. ‘What?’ you say. ‘No mincemeat? No Yorkshire pudding? No fruitcake?’ Hell no and bah humbug. This is not a Charles Dickens novel. Quite frankly, I don’t believe for a second that you would cook those things and, even if you did, your friends would never eat mincemeat. You don’t even want to know what they put in that. Why Greek food? Well, in keeping with the title of his column, its inexpensive, delicious and, most importantly, it achieves an exotic flavor with ingredients readily available in this season of limited produce options. Spanakopita, a vegetarian spinach pie, and a Greek salad are easily assembled with basic ingredients. You don’t need to trek to your local Asian market for lemongrass or starfruit to be authentic. Frozen spinach and phyllo dough, fresh eggs and feta, canned kalamata olives and parmesan cheese are all cheap and stocked at supermarkets so you get no excuses for not trying out this one, especially because I found this recipe to be both an easy and impressive dish. It’s great served warm for dinner or packed as a light lunch at room temperature, but because this was my first time making spanakopita I’m willing to admit that I had my worries. Namely, the phyllo dough. In the past we haven’t always gotten along. It’s mostly because a paper-thin sheet of dough that comes frozen always seemed to me to be culinary dynamite-capable of great power, with a flaky, buttery texture, but also capable of catastrophic failure, like cracking or tearing before you even get it put together. Figuratively, working with this stuff feels like handling slightly damp tissue paper with a backhoe, but if you play by the book you can create some delicious food. Therefore, follow these rules and you’ll be fine: – THAW PROPERLY: At least a good full hour before you intend to bake or cook, move the box of frozen dough from the freezer to the fridge. Don’t microwave, don’t leave on the counter and don’t use a blow dryer (this just dries out the dough and ruins it). – KEEP DAMP: I said damp, not wet. Wring out a dishtowel or cheese cloth and cover the unused dough once you start working with it. – BUY TEAR-RESISTANT DOUGH: It’s hard not to find this, but you can still slip up and buy the cheap stuff. It does make a difference. – DON’T CONFUSE PHYLLO WITH PUFF PASTRY: One is not the other. These are two totally different animals, although they are usually stocked next to each other in your grocery’s freezer. Nevertheless, seven layers of thin, raw puff pastry dough in your pan will expand into almost a foot of crust in your oven. Don’t make this mistake. Contact the news editor at [email protected] |
Food GlossarySpanakopita(Spa-na-‘kO-pE-ta): a traditional Greek pie of spinach, feta cheese, and seasonings baked in phyllo. Phyllo(Fil-lo): extremely thin dough that is layered to produce a flaky pastry. Literally, “leaf,” from the Greek word phyllon. Feta(fe-ta): a white moderately hard and crumbly Greek cheese made from sheep’s or goat’s milk and cured in brine. Video instructionsChoose a video size large | medium | small Print RecipeSpanikopita
1. Thaw frozen spinach or saute fresh spinach. Place in colander and wring dry. This is a very important step. |
My big fat grinchy Greek dinner
January 30, 2007
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