Tuesday Recipe - Spinach Feta Triangles

I decided to include Greece in my Middle Eastern month (ducks and covers as a pot of avgelomono and spanikopita are flung in my direction). But this is mainly because there's so much cross-over in the foods of that region, that it just seems to fit a little better for my purposes.

I decided to make spinach feta triangles. Initially, when I didn't read the recipe through properly, I thought I was planning on making spanikopita (spinach phyllo squares), but it turns out they're more triangles, kind of like the Greek version of egg rolls. And I didn't realize how time consuming it would be. Yikes. I need to get a butcher's block table, because bending over my regular table is not doing my neck and back any good...

In any case, it came out pretty well. In fact, I actually prefer it as leftovers. When I ate them hot out of the oven, I thought they were ok, but nothing to write home about (but maybe that's because I ate four in rapid succession, so it was taste overload). I had one with my dinner last night and quite enjoyed it.

I doubled the recipe and froze a bunch, so you could always halve it and make fewer. The recipe below made two cookie sheets worth of triangles (I don't know, perhaps 20?).

Spinach Feta Triangles
20oz fresh spinach, washed
4 small-medium onions, chopped
2 bunches of scallions, chopped finely
1/2C parsley, chopped
1/2C dill, chopped
1/2lb feta, crumbled
1/2lb phyllo dough (usually in the frozen aisle at the store)
olive oil (in spades)

Put onions and scallions in a pot with a little olive oil and cook until soft. Add the herbs and spinach and cook down until wilted. Remove to another bowl or pot with a slotted spoon to drain any excess juices. Let cool.

Take out the phyllo dough. Fold it in two to keep the inside ones moist (or well, not moist, but not dried out). By the time you finish, the outside phyllo will be dried out and hard to cracking, so be sure to keep it on the outside (if you have any tips as to how to get it not to dry out, please let me know). Take one phyllo and cut it into strips of about 3.5"x12" (approximately, it doesn't have to be exact - the ones I used I cut into rough thirds).

Start with one strip, brush it with olive oil. Place another strip on top and brush it with more olive oil. Scoop some of the spinach feta mix and place it at one end of the strip in a triangle shape (with the end and side as two end of the triangle and the hypotenuse being on the inside, not on an edge). Fold this triangle of spinach like a flag - the first fold brings the end of the phyllo towards the side without the spinach, then keep folding in triangles until the spinach is entirely encased in the phyllo. Place on the baking sheet (preferably on a silicon cookie sheet, but barring that, greased with olive oil. Repeat with the rest of the phyllo. Once they're complete, brush the triangles with olive oil and place in the oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes (or until the bottoms slightly brown).

Monday Recipe - Chicken Spinach Soup

I never was much a fan of spinach. In fact, I never was much a fan of vegetables in general, other then basic salad stuff, peas, and corn. Then, I discovered how to cook most of them in a tasty way, and yummm! (Kale, for example, is a vegetable I recently tried and was very surprised at how tasty it was). I learned that asparagus doesn't actually have to be gray after it's cooked (boiling the life out of it), and I actually do like broccoli as long as it's still crunchy. I always used to say that broccoli was the only subject I agreed with the elder President Bush on (he went on record to say he didn't like broccoli), but now I'm happy to say that I can cross even that off our similarities list.

I was a bit dubious about spinach soup, however much I'm a fan of spinach now (especially Jamaican spinach). Something about spinach floating in broth just didn't seem appetizing. But man was I wrong! Plus, this recipe gave me my first chance to use my handy dandy new food processor (woooohooo!), and I didn't slice my finger this time like I did when I was unpacking it (why oh why were we created to be curious beings? Reminder: when directions say NOT to touch the blade, DON'T touch it just to see how sharp it is...). And the food processor did about 20 minutes of work in about 20 seconds. I'm a convert, yes sirree.

The recipe below is slightly modified from the original. I doubled the amount of carrots, scallions, and broth, added chicken to give it protein, but kept the amount of spinach the same. It came out pretty well balanced, I think.

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Chicken Spinach Soup

.5-1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (optional)
1.5-2 lbs spinach, washed and de-stemmed (I used baby spinach, not sure if it changed the flavor)
12C chicken broth (6-8C if you're not adding chicken)
2/3C scallions, chopped
2/3C carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
C quinoa (or barley, rice, pasta, etc)
2T butter
salt/pepper

Melt butter in a large pot and add scallions, carrots and garlic (you can also use olive oil instead of butter for a healthier base). Sautee 2-3 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add whole chicken breasts to the broth.

While chicken is cooking, de-stem the spinach. When chicken is cooked, remove the chicken breasts from the pot. Transfer on a plate to a cutting board. With two sturdy forks, tear chicken into small pieces (you can also cut it into small pieces, but for some strange reason I much prefer how the torn chicken comes out). Return chicken to pot along with the quinoa.

When quinoa is cooked (it will be slightly chewy but not crunchy), add in the spinach and cook until just wilted. Salt and pepper to taste. Be sure not to overcook at this stage or the spinach will turn an unappetizing color.

Depending how large your serving sizes are, I'd say it makes about 8 servings (if you're using the chicken and 12C broth).

Monday Recipe - Eggplant Parm with Spinach and Mushrooms

Back to the cooking grind this weekend. I haven't cooked in several weeks, because of the City Chase and a relaxing weekend in Maine. So this week, I made two recipes - the eggplant parm I'm listing below and a chicken tomato feta pasta with a mustard marjoram dressing. The latter I'll mention at a later date (it's awesome, but I don't have the recipe in my head at the moment...).

Beware: if you cook this recipe and live in a shoebox like I do, you might end up smelling like eggplant parm if you go out that evening...

The eggplant parm was originally my dad's recipe until I tweaked the sauce and added some veggies. So we'll call this a father-daughter collaboration. I bought the eggplant at the farmer's market (it's in season, woohoo!), and the spinach, onions, and mushrooms came from my local farmstand. I ate it straight-up, but I think that it would probably be awesome as a sauce over pasta as well. The recipe below makes lots of leftovers (for fairly large servings, it's about 10 servings, I think).

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Eggplant Parm with Spinach and Mushroom

Sauce:
1 medium-large onion, chopped finely
3 28oz cans of italian-style diced tomatoes
t marjoram
t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2C red wine
grapeseed/olive oil

Eggplant parm:
1 medium eggplant, peeled and sliced into disks
1-2C bread crumbs
2-3 eggs
1/2lb spinach (give or take)
2 large portabello mushrooms, sliced lengthwise
1/4-1/2lb mozzarella
garlic (optional)
grapeseed/olive oil

To make the sauce:
Put some oil in a pot and add chopped onions. Once onions are translucent, but not browned, add the tomatoes, spices, and wine. Continue to cook while you make the eggplant so the flavors will permeate the sauce. Don't hold your head too close to the pot or you might get hot tomato in your face (no, of course that didn't happen to me, no sirree!)

To make the eggplant parm:
Put bread crumbs in one bowl and eggs (whisked) in another. Add oil to a skillet. Coat eggplant disk in egg then bread crumbs and place in the heated skillet (as many at a time as you can fit). Cook until browned on both sides (don't overcook as they have the tendency to turn into hockey pucks, which could both help build up jaw muscles and also crack teeth at the same time). Set aside.

Next comes the assembly. I use a glass casserole dish, so I don't preheat the oven (putting glass into a hot oven can make it crack, I hear tell), but if you're using another material, then preheat the oven to 375.

In your casserole dish, put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom, then follow with layers of eggplant, sauce, mushroom, spinach, sauce, cheese, sauce, eggplant, etc etc until it's completed. Dab minced garlic throughout as much as desired (I forgot this step when I made it, so it's not essential). Pop into the oven and cook until cheese is melted and tomato sauce is bubbling (but not bubbling over, so don't pile your layers too high. Trust me, tomato and cheese caking the bottom of your over never makes for a pleasant experience when it comes to fire alarms).

Maybe next time I make this I'll try adding chicken or something, to add some protein (apart from the cheese, which (while tasty) is high in saturated fat.

It just occurred to me that there's no parmesan in this recipe. Hrm. Well, I suppose I was supposed to use parmesan instead of mozzarella, but whatever, it's all about taste, right?