I come from the land of spanakopita

Passport & Plate - Yaiyai's Spanakopita (with secret ingredient)

Greece | Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
1 packet filo pastry
2-3 big bunches of spinach, stems removed (I prefer silverbeet - punchier flavour and texture)
Dill, parsley, spring onions - generous handful of each, chopped finely
1/2kg fetta - or more if needed - grated or crumbled
4 eggs - lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter (melted) mixed with 1/2 cup olive oil
250mL soda water (yep - that's my secret)

 

How to prepare this recipe
Blanch silverbeet in salted boiling water until soft. Ideally drain overnight, but if you're time-poor, rinse with cold water then squeeze out all excess water. Roughly chop.
In a large bowl place chopped silverbeet, fetta, eggs and all herbs. Mix well.
Add half the butter and oil mixture to the silverbeet ingredients.
Layer 1/3 of the filo pastry in a big baking dish- brushing butter & oil mix between every pastry layer.
Spoon over 1/2 the silverbeet mixture & spread evenly.
Layer 1/3 of filo + butter & oil mix between each layer.
Spoon remainder of silverbeet mixture & spread evenly.
Finish with the remainder of filo and butter & oil, ensuring you brush the final layer of pastry with the butter & oil mix.

Before cooking, gently cut the uncooked pie into squares for serving - cut down to the bottom. This makes it so much easier when you go to serve it.
Cook at 200 degrees for 15 mins - take out from oven and pour soda water over the pie.
Cook for another 20 mins or so until golden brown. The more golden the better.
Let pie sit for 10-15 mins out of the oven before serving. Can be served hot or cold.

 

The story behind this recipe
I grew up in the country with a Greek father and Australian mother; with my other Greek relatives living interstate I never learnt the Greek language. Having said that, Greek food has always been fluent to me. Even before my grandparents joined us in Tasmania, my grandma –my Yaiyai– would pass on her recipes to my mother who would adopt them at home.

We moved to Hobart, as did my grandparents, and Greek feasts became more common. “Have you had enough to eat” is a cliché European Grandmother thing to say, yet it’s what I heard every time I saw my Yaiyai.

My mother learnt the family dishes and tricks including how much nutmeg to put into everything, how to properly roll vine leaves, and I soon began to take an interest, too. When it was time to get my first job I applied for Blockbuster Video and a Greek restaurant – I got the Greek restaurant. Words like taramosalata, galaktoboureko, melitzanosalata rolled off my tongue, and my interest in Greek food grew further.

This recipe –my Yaiyai’s spanakopita– is a true crowd pleaser. I don’t share the recipe with many –the last time I did was in a book of recipes for a friend who is getting married- but each time I do, the same question gets asked about my Yaiyai’s secret ingredient, “you put soda water on the spinach pie?”. It’s true. And it works. It works its magic on the filling and the filo pasty to make it the perfect blend of fluffy and crispy. The Greeks aren’t very good at portion control, so my recipe feeds about 15. Or, as typically happens, I tend to make it and gorge on it for most meals, for a number of days.

This recipe is seemingly simply, with a secret twist, and a surprising result. It travelled from my great-great-great Grandparents in Greece, across to Egypt where my grandparents and father was born, over on the boat to Sydney, down to Tasmania and now it’s getting the rounds in Sydney where I currently live. I look forward to sharing it with the special people in my life in years to come.