Greek Cooking Class

In Athens, mom and I took a cooking class. We learned to make spanakopita (traditional spinach-feta cheese pie), tzatziki and Greek salad (horiatiki as they call it in Greek). 

For the spinach pie the ingredients we used were: Spinach (Obviously), leek, dill or fennel, LOADS of olive oil, feta cheese, and filo pastry.

First, you will need to alternate layers between olive oil and filo. Do this until the base of the pie is 3 filos (Fili, filoes?) thick.

Next, crunch each spinach leaf into 2 or 3 pieces, and fill the pie with the spinach, leek and dill. Remember that the spinach will sink a lot when it cooks. Then crumble the feta over the veggies.

Then, boil the leftover olive oil. When it is furiously bubbling, take it off the heat and pour it over the pie.

Then, grab 4 more *insert plural noun on “filo” here* and stick them together with olive oil. Put this 4 thick sheet of filo over the pie and stick it to the other filo with MORE olive oil.

Indent a few lines in the top where you want to cut the pie. This will make it easier later to cut "cleanly" (It's difficult with the soggy spinach and oily filo). Then bake it at around 160~170 degrees with the fan on, until the filo is golden, but the spinach and other vegetables are still green.

Now you can start the tzatziki! First, grate the cucumber on the larger side and the garlic on the smaller side.

Then, mix it with yogurt, add salt and pepper, a bit of vinegar, and you're done. If you set it in the fridge for half an hour to marinate before eating, it tastes better.

Making the Greek salad (pictured above on the right) was pretty simple. You just cut up the ingredients and pour over the olive oil, but most importantly you don't cut the tomato on the cutting board because all the juices will go out. Instead, you cut the tomato above the salad bowl. 

This is how the pie should look when you are done.

I hope you enjoy these traditional greek foods! I am not a spinach fan, but it was an interesting experience.

Thanks for reading! And until next time, especially when they are in tzatziki, cucumbers taste grate.