Our best man recently took some cooking classes he was very satisfied with, and he learned how to prepare traditional recipes from many different countries. This pie is one of them. He made it for us, and we were all delighted - it was absolutely fantastic! He was very kind to share the recipe with me, and I'm sharing it with you now... :)
And for the name... The pie was originally bearing some long name that was somehow similar to few I already had in my cookbook, so I decided to change it to Best Man's Pie so that I can find it right away when I need it! :)
And what can I say about the pie itself without revealing too much information... :) Well, I will just mention it's an amazingly delicious, hearty and quite strong dairy-vegetables filling sandwiched between thin layers of dough, which makes a divine, ambrosial, creamy pie...
Enough talking! Let's cook now! :) Here's what you'll need:
- 500 g filo pastry (15+ sheets)
- 500 g cottage cheese (or feta or hard white brined cheese)
- 200 g clotted cream
- 300 g sour cream
- 5 eggs
- 500 g fresh spinach (or nettle, or chard, or dock)
- 2 medium-sized leek stalks
- 100 ml + 5 tablespoons oil
- to taste salt and pepper
- Finely chop the leeks. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium fire and add leeks. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they become soft. Remove from fire and let it cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, bring some water to boiling, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and scald spinach briefly until wilted. Drain it well, chop it and let it cool slightly.
You can use other greens instead of spinach, and the procedure is the same. - Beat eggs using a hand mixer. Add sour cream and clotted cream and mix again until homogenized. Then add 100 ml of oil, cottage cheese (or some of the others listed, crushed or grated), leeks and greens and combine with a spoon. Season with some salt and pepper, but be careful - cheese can be quite salted itself.
You will get a quite liquid, batter-like mixture.
|
4. Now, it's time to assemble the pie. Lightly grease a big baking pan, some in which a whole filo sheet can stand. I used the one that comes with the oven, which is 35x40cm.
Set aside 3 filo sheets: you'll need them at the end. |
Now place two filo sheet and spread some of the filling on the top. Then continue layering in the same order: two filo sheet-filling, until you spend all of the filling and all of the filo sheets (except for those three you set aside in step 4).
I used approx. 2 ladles of filling per layer and it was just perfect, but you should plan how much will you put according to the number of sheets you have.
6. Cover the pie with the last 3 sheets and brush the top one with the last tablespoon of oil.
Cut the pie into pieces. This will help you take out the pieces more easily later when baked.
It should look like this...
8. Take the pan out from the oven, cover with a kitchen towel and let it stand for 10-15 minutes to cool slightly. Then, cut into pieces and serve.
Serve warm or cold, with some yogurt or sour cream. Enjoy and bon appétit! |
|