Chard, herb and feta pide-pie

Recently, when I've gotten something in my head I want to eat, I want to eat that thing and only that thing. Yesterday, it was pie - something like the multitude of greens+cheese pies we ate in Greece. We had a big bunch of chard in the fridge, and with some feta and a selection of herbs from the yard, this seemed like it (I used this recipe and this one as guides for the filling). But then, pastry - I never really make pastry, I definitely don't have a go-to recipe. I also have a distinct aversion to going to the shops for a single ingredient - I'd always rather improvise with the contents of the fridge. And I don't currently own a pie dish, so I had to find something that could be free-shaped and plonked on a baking sheet. It turns out that thing can be called a galette, and I liked the idea of a dough with yoghurt in it (I'd like it even more if it had olive oil instead of butter, will have to investigate), so I thought I'd try this recipe. When S got home, he thought the idea came from the tasty pide I have sometimes been buying from a Middle Eastern bakery on the way home, and it's true - they were pretty much pide-shaped and filled, and pide are also a freeform shape like what I was looking for - next time, I'll have to look up pide dough recipes.

(Make sure to start the dough an hour before you want to shape and bake the pies - it needs to rest in the fridge. I made two medium sized pies that fitted comfortably on my baking trays, but the recipe could easily make one big pie or four smaller pies)

For the dough:
160 g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour (definitely needs more - at least 200g)
1/4 tsp salt (don't use if using salted butter)
115 g (8 tbsp) cold unsalted butter (don't add extra salt if using salted)
60 g (1/4 cup) yoghurt
2 tsp lemon juice
60 ml (1/4 cup) ice water


For the filling:
big bunch of chard (c. 250 g - or beet greens)
olive oil
3 large spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley, chopped
1 tbsp chopped oregano, chopped
2 tsp chopped mint, chopped
2 tsp chopped sage, chopped
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1/3 of a 200g pack of feta
1 egg, and the white of another left from making the pastry glaze, beaten
salt+pepper

For the pastry glaze:
1 egg yolk (put the rest in the filling), beaten with
1 tsp water

First, prepare the dough: put the flour (and salt, if using) into a large bowl, then chop the butter into small dice and add to the bowl. Rub the butter into the flour as if making crumble. Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and water in a small bowl, then add to the flour-butter crumbs and mix until the dough comes together into a ball. Add a little more flour if it doesn't stick together in a ball. Wrap the ball in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least an hour (up to two days).

While resting the dough, prepare the filling. Wash chard and separate stems from leafy parts. Chop the stems, and tear the leafy parts into pieces. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the spring onions and chard stems. Fry reasonably high for a few minutes. Add chard leaves and herbs and saute for a few minutes, until the chard collapses. Let cool a bit in the pan, then transfer to a colander. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much liquid as you can and discard the liquid. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, crumble over the feta, then add the parmesan and egg, mix up, and season with salt and pepper. This should be about the right time to start the oven - heat to 200C / 400F.

To assemble, split the dough in half. Roll out one half into an approximate circle on a well-floured work surface. It should be about the size of a large plate, about 3 mm thick. Fold lightly in half, then in quarters, and transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Unfold. Spread half the filling in the middle, out to about 1 1/2 inches from the edge. Then fold in the edges to overlap the outer part of the filling, pleating and crumpling to make it fit. Brush the exposed pastry with egg glaze, then put the pie in the oven. Repeat with the other half of the dough and filling.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, until the pie is golden. Take out and eat pretty much immediately with a simple salad, or let cool and take for lunches (it's fairly robust and travels well).


Notes:
Shaping the dough was super straightforward, and nothing annoying happened whatsoever. And the pies came out great - prettily crumpled and golden, crisp tasty pastry (no soggy bottom), stored well in the fridge for a few days and nice cold (although I have actually been reheating in the microwave at work for c. 15 sec). Could maybe have done with a little more filling, but it was sufficient - never underestimate how much greens collapse when cooked! So many other filling ideas now! And, I would like to try with an olive oil pastry.

* I used the gram measurements from the original recipe, but it came out a little wet and I had to add a bit more flour - my guess is it should be approx. 200 g flour instead of 160 g

Christmas: Nut loaf

Turns out S had never eaten a nut roast. So, almost as a joke, I made one for our Christmas lunch. I liked the idea of incorporating parsnips (double the Christmassiness) and when I came across this recipe I decided it was the one. I interpreted the ingredient list pretty loosely, using up various nuts etc we had lying around.

300g parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
100g walnuts
90g unsalted cashews (used mixture of cashews and almonds)
200g breadcrumbs
100g pine nuts (used mixture of slivered almonds and sunflower seeds)
~2 tsp crumbled dried rosemary
~2 tsp crumbled dried sage
~ 1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
50g cranberries (used ~2 tbsp dried sour cherries, rehydrated by soaking in ~ 2 tbsp boiling water)
1 egg (or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water)
another ~1 tbsp olive oil

cranberry chutney or sauce (and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or parsley) to serve

Heat the oven to 180C / 356F. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the parsnips until tender. In a frying pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil, add the onion and garlic and cook until softened.

Meanwhile, pulse the walnuts and cashews in a blender until roughly chopped and then mix with the breadcrumbs in a large bowl. Add the onions, garlic, pine nuts, rosemary, sage, nutmeg, sour cherries or cranberries and seasoning to the mix. Then beat in the egg.

When the parsnips are tender, drain and mash roughly with ~1 tbsp olive oil. Add the parsnip mash to the rest of the mixture. Grease a large loaf tin (and maybe line the base*), then press the mixture into it. Bake for 50-55 min, until set. Let cool for ten min, then turn out.

To serve, warm up some cranberry sauce with some added fresh cranberries (or use cranberry chutney), spoon it over the top of the nut roast, and decorate with cranberries and fresh herbs (I used two cranberries and a piece of parsley to make some kitschy-looking pretend holly.


This was really surprisingly good - deliciously crunchy around the edges but tender in the middle. Quite nutty and appetising, although the parsnips got a bit lost - another time I might mash them less or not at all. Definitely needed some sauce - luckily I had some cranberry chutney squirreled away, which was perfect (suddenly I see the point of all that preserving through Summer and Autumn - instant food in Winter!).

*I didn't grease or anything at all and it stuck to the base a little bit - not horrendously but a bit (I suspected it might, but thought I'd try the minimal effort route first). To avoid this, I'd definitely try greasing; potentially also lining the base.

Squash wedges with cumin, cinnamon, sage and garlic

Couldn't resist the prettiest pile of Orange Acorn and Delicata (variegated orange / cream / green) squashes being put out at Trader Joes when I went there on Friday (ahem supposedly looking for chocolates to decorate a cake ahem). I thought I should be so over squash by now, but no...

Decided to roast them right away, had been thinking about the combination of cumin seeds and ground cinnamon, and wanted to use up some sage.

2 medium squashes (one Delicata, one Orange Acorn), cut in half and deseeded (keep the seeds to toast)
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped sage leaves
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt+pepper

Heat the oven to 400F. Chop the squash halves into wedges, leaving the skin on each. Toss the wedges with the rest of the ingredients, then tip onto a lightly oiled baking tin. Roast for 25-30 min, until soft to a poke with a fork. You can turn them midway through to avoid browning the bottom side too much.


These were yum.  Ate them with wild+brown rice mix and bean puree. Definitely fun to leave the skin on when the skin is so pretty. I kind of like the texture contrast it brings too. Liked both squash varieties: no closer to settling on my favourite kind of squash. Think the trick may just be to find nice fresh / ripe ones.

Squash, chanterelle and sage flatbread / pizza

My lab hosted a pumpkin themed happy hour on Friday, and it was out of control. We ran a pumpkin carving competition, delivering pumpkins to each lab / group (17 in total) a week in advance and then fanning a wildfire of competing posters from different groups advertising why you should vote for them (in homage to the upcoming election). Then on Friday we made a feast of pumpkin based food, decorated the department in orange and black, ran the ballots for the competition and awarded the trophies (gold-painted gourds on pedestals). The food making was epic: I hacked up 11 butternut squashes with a crappy knife and I've got a blister to prove it. Everything we made contained something squash: pumpkin bruschetta (baguette slices with a smear of baked squash, plus some combination of goat cheese, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, fresh coriander and seasoning), 'squashamole' (dip made with mashed baked squash, lime juice, chopped red onion, ground cumin, chopped coriander and seasoning) with hexagonal multigrain chips (Paul's special request / invention), roasted butternut squash and tofu chunks with rosemary / sage, wild and brown rice mix with toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh coriander, roasted squash seeds with cajun spice, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin-white chocolate muffins. We bought the baguettes and the pumpkin pies but we made pretty much everything else from scratch.

So, I couldn't imagine eating another squash after all that, what with the blister and the overexposure. But a lazy Sunday rolled around and S popped up wondering what was for lunch, and I remembered an idea I had of using baked squash instead of tomato sauce on pizza... And also that I had a tub of baked squash left over from happy hour in the fridge, plus a batch of bread mix, the last of the chanterelles and some rosemary and sage from Andrea's yard - seemed like an irresistible plan!

2 orange-sized chunks of dough
1-2 cups of baked squash (peel removed)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1 small onion, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 black salty olives, pits removed, torn into quarters
3/4 cup chanterelles, checked for imperfections and torn into large pieces (sliced chestnut mushrooms would be a decent out-of-season substitute)
1 tsp chopped sage leaves
1 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
semolina / corn meal for lining the baking trays
(optional cheese - S is still eating his way through the cheese mountain his mum left behind, so he put some brie and parmesan on his bits)

Heat the oven to 450F. Roll or stretch out the dough as thin as you can - try to get down to ~2 mm thick.  Move the pizza base to a baking tray pre-sprinkled with semolina or coarse corn meal (this quantity is for 2 pizzas).

Mash the baked squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Smear the bases with the squash mixture, making an uneven covering 2-3 mm thick. Scatter the onion, garlic, olives, chanterelles and herbs over the top, and season / drizzle a wee drop more olive oil over the top.

Put the baking trays in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes / until the crust is crisp and starting to brown around the edges and the toppings are cooked. Remove, let cool for a minute and then eat.


This was a very successful experiment all round. It was a lovely, rich, colourful pizza topping combination that tasted great, and the base came out really crisp. The high speed bread mix worked great as pizza base (which is brilliant news - that stuff is super useful); lining the trays with semolina / cornmeal was much better than using flour; and the squash made a wonderful, very seasonal sauce (less wet than tomato although still moist, perhaps this contributed to the crispness).