Maggan’s Kitchen Adventures

Hi! Remember me? My name is Maggan and you are in my kitchen. Do make yourself feel at home.

I’m alive! It’s spring and I’m alive like a newly awakened bear. The bright weather last Saturday so energized me that I cleaned our bathroom: scrubbed the water stains on the floor, scrubbed the toilet, dusted the shelves, and wiped off the toothpaste spots on the mirror.

About the mirror, I cannot decide whether or not to be pleased that it is serving its purpose again. True that I can now see my reflection clearly but there is no denying that the mirror looked like Jackson Pollack’s artwork. What do you think?

So last Saturday for me was a perfect day for plucking eyebrows and making spinach pie for dinner. Since I didn’t pluck my eyebrows in the kitchen, I won’t discuss it in this blog. (But I can give tips privately.)

This spinach pie recipe is taken from the latest edition of the magazine Mom. But Jaime also motivated me to finally try dinner pie. He made 3 kinds of pies a couple of weeks ago to show me that making pie crusts is not to be feared.

Spinach pie with feta cheese

Pie crust

• 1 decilitre flour
• 1 decilitre graham flour
• .5 decilitre butter
• .5 decilitre Kesella

Filling

• 250 grams frozen spinach
• half an onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin oil
• 12 pieces sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1-2 decilitres fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 100 grams feta cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 decilitres milk
• 1 decilitre cheese (any of the stronger kinds)
• half a teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper for seasoning

1. Set the oven at 200 degrees Celsius. 
2. Thaw the frozen spinach.
3. Mix the ingredients for the crust.
4. If you don’t have a food processor, blend them well with your fingers.
5. Press the dough in the pie dish and let it rest and cool for an hour in the fridge.
6. As an alternative to item 3 above, roll the dough lightly on a baking paper to flatten it evenly to the size of the pie dish. Then lay the flattened dough in the pie dish. Lightly press it onto the bottom and sides of the dish. Tear off the excess dough.
7. Roughly chop the thawed spinach leaves.
8. Finely chop the onion.
9. Heat the oil in a pan in medium heat.
10. Saute the onion until it caramelizes (soft, overdone).
11. Add in the chopped spinach. Cook for about 7-10 minutes.
12. Take out the chilled pie crust from the fridge.
13. Put the spinach in the pie dish.
14. Add in the sun-dried tomatoes and basil leaves.
15. Break the feta cheese into crumbs over the spinach layer.
16. In a bowl, whip the eggs.
17. Pour the milk into the eggs.
18. Add the grated cheese salt and pepper and whip them in.
19. Pour the egg mixture into the pie dish.
20. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.
21. Serve with salad leaves.

Tasty dish. Rock n’ roll as Jamie would say. It got an excellent rating from H. As a matter of fact, I’m making it again tonight minus the onion. I love onions but I don’t have it and I don’t want to go out again.

P.S. Some notes. Graham flour is whole-grain wheat flour with grain skins or shells in it. This makes it rough in texture. 

P.P.S. Kesella may not be easily available outside Sweden. You may substitute it with eggs. I haven’t tried it by Jamie uses eggs. Try one egg first. If you feel that the dough is not moist enough with one egg, add another one.