Greetings Gastronauts, this is Keef Cooks, I’m Keef, and today I’m going to make another Greek
dish, spanakopita. Spinach and feta pie, oh yes.
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So this is proper wonderful and very easy except I’m going to make my own filo pastry just for a,
y’know, I like a challenge. So if you enjoy this video,
give it a like, share, subscribe etc and let's get on with it – spanakopita!
Now I’m going to make the filo pastry or possibly file-oh pastry I’m not, I've
never been quite sure but y’know what I mean. So I’ve got 250 grams of plain all-purpose flour,
I’ve got five teaspoons of EVOO, Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
I’ve got two teaspoons of white wine vinegar, I’ve got a half teaspoon of salt
and I need about 200 ml of warm water.
And also later on I’ll need some of this cornflour, cornstarch.
Okay, we need to mix all of those things. All right so I’ve got the flour in there, I’ll add
a half teaspoon of salt. Just get that mixed, and then drizzle in the oil, and the vinegar,
and the water. Let that chug away til it
forms a ball that comes away from the bowl. Right I’m not massively convinced
about this dough. I’ve added probably
about another 100 grams of flour so take the quantities with a pinch of salt aha.
I don't want regular flour on the worktop I want this
extremely fine cornflour - it really is, it's like silk.
And here's my massive lump of dough - that's sticky as a sticky thing.
Okay I’m going to wrap that in plastic film and pop it in the fridge to rest for half an hour.
[ MANIC MUSIC ]
All right I’ve got the pasta attachment fixed onto the
wonderful KitchenAid thingy - other brands are available.
So I’m going to cut that into, I think, six pieces.
And you don't want this stuff to dry out, so when you're not using it keep it covered.
So I’ve got the pasta rollers on their widest setting which on this
machine is numbered number one and it goes up to number eight getting progressively smaller.
So we'll just this through a few times.
[ MACHINE WHIRRIN ]
Alright so it's been through a few times on setting three and it's quite sticky.
So brush it with a bit of cornflour when it gets too sticky.
Now we'll turn this down to five and whack it through a few times on that.
[ WHIRRIN AGAIN ]
Sticky. All right, that's been through on number three now I’m going to put it down to number five.
And now we'll turn it down to number seven.
Yeah I think I’ll try that one again. So I wasted quite a lot of time with the
pasta roller and I was just getting nowhere. I have seen a YouTube video of a guy doing
this and he has no trouble whatsoever, but I know my dough consistency wasn't right.
So I decided to abandon the pasta rollers and get the old rolling pin out.
Yeehaa! All right I’ll just cut this in half.
Just keep on going till they're all done. Right that's my filo pastry so I’m just
going to cover that with a teatowel and put it out the way til we're ready for it.
Now I’m going to make the filling and I’ve got to say this is one of those recipes where
the only and authentic and best recipe is your grandmother's.
So not claiming anything is authentic but I’m, y’know, trying to get close.
So I’ve got a wheelbarrow full of spinach, I’ve got 200 grams of feta cheese, I’ve got two eggs,
a red onion, four spring onions or green onions, scallions.
The zest of one lemon, a good handful of dill, handful of mint, two tablespoons of
extra virgin olive oil and, completely optional… 50 grams of bulgur wheat which will give it a
bit of body. And I’m using it because I’ve got this bulgur
wheat which I have had for at least a century. And the only thing I ever use it in is tabbouleh
and I don't make that very much well, I don't, I haven't made it for years and years and years.
But you can stick it in this, so I’m gonna. So there.
Now about the spinach - it's actually 900 grams frozen. If you can get fresh spinach that is
grown-up, not baby stuff, then get that. But all I could see was baby spinach
which will just disintegrate I mean it disintegrates anyway but even more so.
So if you have got fresh spinach leaves you'll need to stick them in a colander,
sprinkle with plenty of salt and just let them drain in the sink and
then when it's done squeeze it with your hands. I’m going to have to squeeze this anyway - you see
there's still tons of liquid in it. Ugh! And the bulgur wheat I’ve pre-cooked that - it's
been simmering for about 30 minutes. we need to do some prep.
First thing to do is cut the red onion peel it, dice it,
and then fry it gently in oil just to soften it for about five minutes. But don't brown it.
And we just need to slice the spring onions and we turn off the heat and add the
spring onions to the red onions and just give those a stir.
Right, now we're going to start assembling the filling so chop all my herbs.
So we cut the feta into cubes,
put them in the bowl with the herbs. Then we want the zest off a lemon…
SmellyVision! Come on hurry up! Now break the eggs into a bowl.
That's for Brenda Rigdon who told me about that trick of smashing two eggs
together but only one will break. But now we only have one left.
Now just put everything in the bowl and at this point you want to get your oven heating to
180 degrees Celsius for a fan oven, convection oven.
That's 200 for a conventional one and that is gas 6.
I think I claimed it was gas 5 the other day but I was wrong.
Add the bulgur, the red onion and the spring onion and the spinach
and give it a good old mix.
Okay now we'll build the pie, so I’ve got this brand new non-stick sort of roasting tin
and I’ve lined it with greaseproof paper because I don't want to trash this non-stick coating.
If you're not lining it just give the inside a good coating of olive oil
so the pastry doesn't stick. Okay let's try and get this in there.
So if your pastry is a bit thick - I think this some of this is - you can
call it rustic and that's okay. Wow look at that…just um…
I’ll just trim this a bit.
And as you put each piece in just put some olive oil on it so - just loosely oiling them
will stop them sticking together too much. I’m just going to cut all of these in half
because I think it will make my life a little bit easier.
Yeah, come on baby!
Right I’ve used up half the pastry so I’m going to put the filling in…
Put the top on. Confession I’ve had to re-roll most of this because it just - it was
all stuck together because it's been hanging around for a lot longer than it should do.
Anyway, in we go.
So there it is, got all the filling in quite nice. I’ll just
put more pastry on the top. Okay, nearly there, last piece.
And while I was doing that I was thinking you could do a rather nice kind of lattice effect
if you had nice even strips of filo pastry which I haven't.
But next time I do it, y’know, I’ll certainly buy it - I’m not going to make it again!
So I might try that and it should be quite interesting.
Okay so now just fold up the edges, make it nice and neat and seal it.
And pop it in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes depending how crispy deep and brown you want it.
All right it's had about 20 minutes I’ve just have a sneaky look and it's very pale and bleugh
so I’m going to paint the top with some beaten egg because that doesn't look appetizing to me.
And then we'll put it back in, give it another 10-20 minutes.
Okay time is up. Oh yeah, that's better, nice golden
weird-looking pie. So we need to let that cool down for
10 minutes and then hack it open and see what it's like. Okay interesting looking pie.
Open it up - this filo pastry is - it's more like regular pastry.
It's not, y’know, the leaves of it aren't separate like they're supposed to be.
But never mind, next time they will be.
Ooh there we go.
That's a big solid chunk of spinach and yeah Popeye would love it.
Okey dokey, let us have a taste.
Mrs KeefCooks: "Hello darling!"
"I’m doing a taste test…" "Are ya?"
So let's have a little taste…hmm
Lemony…
Cheesy…
I gotta say after all that effort,
I am disappointed. That is not that not a lot like what I remember spanakopita as being like so…
Aargh!
And the pastry is rubbish so I don't know what to do with this really.
Well I suppose I don't know it's not as good as it should have been.
"Awww."
[ CHEERIN ]
"It's me. We haven't had pie in ages, have we?" "It's not real pie, it’s Greek spinach and feta."
"Oh wow!" "Spanakopita"
"Ooh I’m going to love this. I picked my moment to come in didn't I?" "I know, that's probably your favourite thing."
"Yeah. I absolutely loved last week's so if you like Greek food..."
"That tzatziki, the new way of doing it, that is fantastic!"
"It's not bad walking in the door and getting fed. It's not bad at all."
"All right then. Not as bad as I thought." "Why aren't you happy?"
"Well I made the - it's supposed to be filo pastry - I made it meself so it's not as thin and leafy and crispy as it should be..."
"and also I don't like spinach so."
[ LAFFS ]
"I would add pepper, that's all."
"But I always want to add pepper." "Okay you can add pepper. I didn't add any salt"
"Because the feta is usually pretty salty. Okay thanks for watching and see you next time!"
"Okay, ta-ra!"
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