22 posts tagged “vegetarian”

Or, a fancy schmancy Greek way of saying spinach-'n-rice. In Greek, "spanaki" is spinach and "rizi" is rice.  I hope you're paying attention to some of the Greek tidbits you're learning from my blog because you never know when you may need them. Maybe your next Cranium question is going to ask what a spanakophobe is, and of course you're going to know right away that, obviously, it's someone who fears spinach.

[Okay, I just did about 20 seconds of googling and was not able to confirm that a person who is scared of spinach is called a spanakophobe or anything remotely close to that. So let's not use that example, but it could come into play somewhere, I promise. Maybe not with spanakophobe or rizophile, but some time.]

At any rate, spanakorizo is a very common Greek side dish. The flavors are very typical of other Greek dishes and they taste great when combined. The bonus is that this can double as your vegetable and your starch side. Normally, I am not one to do that (veggies are important and most veggies incorporated into starches tend to be in very small quantities), but here I am giving you the go ahead. About 1.5-2 lbs. of spinach are put into this rice, and the amount of rice you eat is actually less than the serving (how often can you say that about a starch?) but don't worry, the portion is still plenty.

Traditionally, spanakorizo has quite a bit more olive oil to start, but I like to make a healthier version. I suppose using brown rice would make it even healthier but for some things, even I just say no to brown rice. Some Greeks add tomato paste or fresh tomatoes to their spanakorizo but I am not one of them. I don't believe that there's anything wrong with that, but I like the combo of the dill, spinach and lemon as it stands.

In case you're wondering, we had this with a very Greek-flavored pork tenderloin that I quick marinated in fresh lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and oregano and then seared and roasted.

 

Spanakorizo
Serves 4

1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2/3 cup long grain white rice
1-1/3 cup water
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 bunches or about 1.5-2 lbs. fresh spinach, chopped (and remove any stems that don't seem very tender)
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped (or about 1 T dried)
salt and pepper 

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Once heated, add the onions and saute until tender. Add the rice and stir to coat it in the olive oil, "toasting" it for a minute or two. Add the water and lemon juice and bring to a boil.

Add the spinach, dill and some salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture down to a simmer. Cover tightly and simmer about 15 minutes or until rice is cooked.  

 

Nutritional Information Per Serving: Calories: 205 / Fat: 6g / Carbs: 33g / Fiber: 4.5g / Protein: 7.3g

 

 

 

As I mentioned, there are so many great blogging events going on right now and sadly, I haven't had the chance to participate in as many as I would like. Thankfully, though, Barbara at Winos and Foodies extended the deadline for this year's Taste of Yellow, so I was able to sneak a submission in tonight before going out of town tomorrow. If you haven't already participated in LiveSTRONG Taste of Yellow 2008, definitely try to!

I picked up some yellow squash the other day, and sort of decided what I was going to do with it about 5 minutes before cooking it. The filling consists of ingredients I always have around, and that I love in combination with one another. Plus, I think it makes for something quite pretty!

Taste of Yellow is to show your support of LiveSTRONG Day 2008, which is May 13. Cancer. It's one of those things that I feel affects nearly everyone in some way, unfortunately.  It hit me the hardest as a freshman in high school when my grandfather was diagnosed with colon cancer.

I lived with my grandparents from when I was 3 years old until I was 10 years old. They were obviously like a second set of parents to me. My yiayia (grandma) and pappou (grandpa) took me on their biannual vacations, gave me my first job as a "hostess" at their restaurant, and, well, made me talk to anyone who called because they couldn't speak good English :) Speaking of poor English, one of my earliest memories is of my pappou yelling at my preschool teacher. See, when I started preschool I was armed with a very small set of English words as I spoke Greek to my whole family. I was also armed with quite a temper and stubbornness (some things never change). One day, we were supposed to be napping in cots. I was not used to taking naps in the afternoon and I tried to let my teacher know that. The teacher, increasingly frustrated with me, eventually dragged my cot (and me) out to the hallway and made me sit there for the rest of the afternoon. When my pappou came to pick me up and saw me crying in the hallway, he was absolutely furious. You can imagine the the screaming in incredibly broken English that ensued.  

I was alway close with both my grandparents, but my pappou and I shared a special bond. I was the typical spoiled only grandchild, but it was so much more than that. We always had a good time together, and he loved me more than anyone. I'd stay up waiting for him to come home from the restaurant and practically every night, like clockwork, he would eat a steak and drink some ouzo. So now you know where I get my adoration for both steak and ouzo :)

When my pappou was diagnosed with cancer, it was obviously a scary thing for me but more than anything, I assumed he would pull through it. My grandpa was tough. He was a big guy. He came from Greece on a boat and became successful in the States. He raised me in addition to raising three of his own children. Cancer? He could beat cancer! Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Watching someone you love so much get weaker, get thinner and just get sicker as the cancer spread is something I hope I never have to go through again. My pappou lost his battle with cancer in 1995. It was devastating. And, it's still devastating. I still think about him all of the time, and I often wish he were here to share so many things with me. On our wedding day, Tom and I wore the "stefana" (crowns prevalent during an Orthodox ceremony) that my yiayia and pappou wore on their wedding day in 1959. It was a way for him to be there with me on my special day, and I know that he is still "here" for me on other special days. Or maybe on a day that doesn't even seem that special...watching over me, wondering why I am eating chicken and drinking wine when I could be having a piece of steak with a shot of ouzo instead.

 

Mediterranean Squash Boats

2 yellow squash
a little olive oil
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted
1 large clove garlic, finely minced or pressed
2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
drizzle of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
fresh parsley or additional basil for topping (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375.

Wash and scrub the squash, and then cut lengthwise. Scoop out the "meat" of the squash, chop it, and put it in a bowl. To the bowl, add the sundried tomatoes, basil, pine nuts, garlic and salt and pepper to taste.

Brush the outside of the squash with a little olive oil (or spray with a Misto) and sprinkle the insides lightly with salt and pepper. Fill the zucchini with the mixture from the bowl. Drizzle each piece with a little balsamic vinegar. Top with the crumbled goat cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or until zucchini is tender and cheese is warm.

 

First, a little TCB/taking care of business. I'm working on bringing Eat to the Beat back. I think it will be a quarterly thing where I make a deadline every 3 months or so. If you miss that deadline, your entry will just roll over to the next round-up. I've just been lazy about posting it, but I promise to do that soon. So, get your thinking caps on! I'm so excited to see everyone's submissions, so I hope you will all take part!

Also, since Vox only lets me put 5 personal links on my page, I decided to make a post with some of my favorite blogs. You can access it here, or I've now put it as the sole link on my left sidebar, <---- over there. This was next to impossible because I follow something crazy like 200 food blogs in my Google reader, so I had to pare down the list a bit. That said, if I visit you a lot and I missed your blog (because, let's face it, despite being young I am quite forgetful), just let me know and I will add you.

Speaking of Vox, I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to move to a different blogging service because of the limitations/annoyances here, but haven't had any luck yet. A lot of sites will import blogger, Wordpress, etc. but not Vox and, as I said earlier, I am lazy--so I don't want to copy and paste well over 200 posts. In the meantime, I want to apologize for everyone who has problems commenting, signing in, etc.. I know it's annoying that you need to sign up with Vox to begin with and then when your comment doesn't work, or gets cut off...grr. So thanks to those of you who have been persistent in commenting or letting me know you read my blog via email, even though Vox has been quite craptastic in that regard.

Now for a little BBB (black bean burger, that is). I admit that it is very, very rare for me to make a dinner that doesn't have some sort of meat in it. Tom and I are the epitome of carnivores. Even when I make something like spinach pie, I make a piece of grilled chicken (or something) to eat with it. It's not only about taste and being full, but also making sure I eat enough protein. So, when I told Tom I was making black bean burgers he was (rightfully) perplexed. "On a Thursday?" he asked (assuming the reason had to do with lent, or some other day of the week where people don't eat meat, I guess).

The truth is, I am trying to use what I have around and well, I always have a can of beans or two around. What I didn't have around was any thawed meat. I was looking around and saw two recipes from Cooking Light for black bean patties/burgers so I decided to take that idea and adapt both a little for what is below.

These turned out quite tasty. I thought the patties were pretty small and wouldn't fill me up but I guess the fiber in the beans, mixed with the bun (and the huge salad I had) did because I was stuffed. I topped these with a little salsa, some habanero cheddar (from Whole Foods and oh so tasty) and a dollop of sour cream.
 

Black Bean Burgers
Makes 4 burgers

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 egg
1 jalapeno, minced
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1/4 cup grated or finely diced onion
1/4 cup cornmeal
salt and pepper to taste

Place about 1/4 of the can of beans and the egg in a food processor and pulse until combined.

In a bowl, place the remaining beans and mash lightly with a fork. Stir in processed beans, jalapeno, oregano, cumin, garlic, onion, cornmeal and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until just combined.

Form the mixture into 4 patties. Heat a skillet or grill pan over medium heat and spray with cooking oil. Cook the patties approximately 3 minutes per side or until browned and heated through.  

 

Nutritional Information (patties only): Calories: 130 / Fat: 1.9g / Carbs: 21.4g / Fiber: 6.1g / Protein: 7.7g

 

So, four months later and I have finally made the plasto my yiayia taught me how to make. Although it's one of my favorite things to eat, I am constantly just running across new things I want to try every week, so it keeps getting pushed back. Plus, I very recently made spanakopitas which are extremely similar.

Plasto is a regional Greek dish that is essentially a greens pie with a cornmeal crust. You can really use any greens you want, though spinach usually tends to make up the bulk of the filling (at least for my grandma's version). Chard, dandelion greens, mustard greens, etc. will all work. It's totally up to you.

This took a little trial and error (I had originally thought I could get away with a cup of cornmeal but ended up adding an additional half cup). And, though the recipe below is more recipe-like than the one I started with, it will still vary a little based on what type of pan you use. I was debating on using an 11x7 baking dish or a 9" springform and ultimately went for the springform since I prefer baking with metal (my 11x7 is glass), it would be easier to get out, and it fits more so I could have a higher filling-to-crust ratio. If you go the route of a regular cake pan (or 9x9 or 11x7) you will need to reduce the filling below. And honestly, I am not 100% sure about the filling amounts, anyway. I didn't *really* measure 7 cups of greens but to me, that's what it looked like. If you're not sure, just build your filling in your baking dish and dump it into a bowl before adding the feta, to make sure you don't have too much or too lilttle. Remember, of course, that they will "shrink" as they cook.

 

Plasto

5 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 cups swiss chard, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh dill or about 1 Tbsp. dried
1 leek, sliced (white and green parts only)
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 Tbsp. softened butter or margarine, divided
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1.5 cups cornmeal
1/3 cup + about 1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 400.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together your spinach, chard, dill, leek, feta and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Spread 1 Tbsp. each of the softened butter and olive oil on the bottom of your pan. In a medium bowl, add the cornmeal, a pinch of salt, and 1/3 cup of milk. You may use a little more or less milk but you are going for a crumbly mixture that you can press into a crust. Place half the mixture over the oiled/buttered pan and press down to form a crust.

Place your greens on top of the bottom crust. To the remainder of your cornmeal mixture, add the milk slowly, mixing with a fork,  until you get a consistency that is wet and spreadable, but not too liquidy. You should be able to spoon the mixture over the greens, but it should not pour out of the bowl. Dollop the mixture over the greens and form a top crust by spreading it around. Top the pie with dollops of the remaining tablespoon of butter, and the olive oil. Bake for about 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

 

The following nutritional information is with using real butter and 2% milk (which I accidentally bought instead of skim. D'oh!). You could make it lighter with skim and using less butter or using margarine, a butter flavor spray, etc. This is for 1/6 of the pie.

Calories: 278 / Fat: 14g / Carbs: 31.4g / Protein: 8.8g

I'm fairly certain that beets are the new black. People used to fear the beet, or so it seems. They'd wrinkle their noses when ordering a Greek salad in one of my family's restaurants and proclaim, "Hold the beets." Those who'd never tried a beet wouldn't even consider giving it a shot. And, I'm pretty sure a large percentage of people wouldn't be able to identify a raw beet if they saw one.

But it seems the fear of the beet has lessened significantly, and lately, they've been popping up everywhere--in magazines, food blogs, cooking shows, healthy eating lists. In fact, I'm pretty sure every restaurant I have gone to in the last year has had some sort of roasted beet appetizer on the menu. Roasted beet and goat cheese salads are the new(ish) thing. And you know what? More often than not, I'll order one. I, for one, have always loved the beet. And coupled with goat cheese? I'm on it. Is this salad so popular that it could one day end up on one of Anthony Bourdain's overrated menus?

I don't think so. It's too unfussy, too pure. It's simplicity at its finest, and its tastiest.

So, of course, that's what I decided to do with the beets I bought on sale last week.

Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

3 large red beets
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, smashed
2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
2 Tbsp. pine nuts
parsley or other fresh herbs, chopped (optional)
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425. Wrap each beat individually in aluminum foil. Roast the beets on the middle rack until tender, about an hour to an hour and a half. Once cool enough to handle, peel the beet and dice it.

Meanwhile, whisk together the vinegar, oil, garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Let it stand for a bit for the flavors to marry. Pluck out the garlic clove and then toss the diced beets with the mixture.

Top with goat cheese, pine nuts, and parsley.

Having a food blog and frequently making new meals may make it seem that I am in the kitchen for hours at a time but don't let me fool  you--I'm pretty lazy. During the week, I will rarely make anything that takes longer than 15 minutes to prep and although I am a little more ambitious on the weekends, I still dread certain things like chopping vegetables for an hour or making things that need time to cool/rise/set/etc. before they can even start the cooking or baking process.

This is where the cheater's version of spanakopita comes into play. I hate working with phyllo. Hate it. Am I a terrible Greek or what? Some people, like Peter, have even made their own phyllo and I am too lazy to even use the one that comes in the freezer section of my grocery store. I mean, the layering, and the buttering/oiling of every layer, the need to make so many layers, the keeping the phyllo you are not using moist as you are building layers. Forget it! I will do it time to time to make baklava or tyropites (cheese pies) and don't get me wrong, I love phyllo. But it's not something I want to do very often. So I make my spanakopitas with puff pastry.

This may have started as an easy way out, but let me tell you that it's possible I now prefer spanakopita this way. Of course, for me it's also a nice change of pace since I usually eat the phyllo version my family makes. Tom just prefers the puff pastry over all. In fact, he has been begging to to make these for months and months. I don't make them very often because I can eat 10 in one sitting. This is no joke, people! I decided to freeze half the batch before baking them off this time (without the egg brush), to help me out a little in that department.

For a more authentic spanakopita, you can certainly make the recipe below with phyllo, or just double the recipe to make a standard spanakopita filling.

Puff Pastry (Cheater's) Spanakopita
Makes 18 spanakopita triangles

a little olive oil
1/2 cup sliced leeks or about 1/4 cup diced onion
fresh dill, to taste
fresh parsley, to taste (you can tell this recipe is very technical)
1/2 lb. fresh spinach (right around 1 bunch) 
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs, divided
salt and pepper
1 box (2 sheets) puff pastry dough, thawed

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large skillet, heat a little bit of olive oil until shimmering. Add the leeks or onions and saute until tender. Stir in the spinach and then turn off the heat. The spinach will start to wilt down, but not much.

Meanwhile, roll the puff pastry dough into a square, making it slightly thinner and then cut each sheet into 9 equal squares by making 2 horizontal cuts and 2 vertical cuts.

To the spinach mixture (you can move it to a bowl if you like), add the feta, parsley, dill and salt and pepper to taste. Beat one egg and add that into the mixture.

Spoon about 1-2 Tbsp. of the spinach mixture in each puff pastry square. Brush the sides of the square with a little water and then being 2 opposite sides together to form a triangle. Press with your fingers to seal. Place on a baking sheet. Beat the second egg and then brush the tops of the triangles with the egg. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden. 

 

 

I was going to make homemade tortillas to serve with our spice-rubbed flank steak, but I wanted something with a little more bulk. I decided to make some corn cakes instead and they were great!

I made two large cakes out of this mixture, so that we could layer the cake with some black beans and the steak, but you could definitely make several smaller cakes with this mixture, to be used as appetizers or snacking or what have you.

Corn Cakes

1/2 cup corn
1/4 cup masa harina (you could also just use AP flour)
1/4 cup cornmeal
good pinch of salt
cayenne and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tsp. baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk (or buttermilk)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
canola oil, for pan frying.

Combine the masa, cornmeal, salt, peppers and baking powder in a bowl. Add the milk and the beaten egg. Depending on the texture you want (I wanted something a little firmer), you could always add some more milk to resemble something more pancake-like. Stir in the corn and cheese.

Heat canola oil in a skillet (I use a nonstick skillet to minimize the amount of oil). Add spoonfuls of the mixture to the skillet (depending how big you want the cakes) and press down lightly with a spatula. Cook until one side has set and is golden brown. Flip and cook the other side until golden.

 

 

 

Nicole at For the Love of Food hosts this really great blogging event called Taste&Create.  She pairs up bloggers and then they each make a recipe from the other's blog and...what else? Blog about it!

I was paired with Abby over at Eat the Right Stuff. This was great for many reasons, including the fact that I had never visited Abby's blog before and now I have a great new blog to add to my reader. As a bonus, Abby tends to eat pretty healthfully as I also (try to) do. Not that I picked an overly healthy recipe, because I didn't :)

I had a lot of fun poring over all of Abby's great recipes and while it was tough to pick just one, I landed on her courgette and lemon risotto. I definitely enjoyed this dish. I love the combination of lemon and basil so I knew I would like this. I would probably add more lemon next time around (the zest from the whole lemon, perhaps) as I tend to like things pretty lemony. I admit I don't use zucchini IN things terribly often and tend to have them as a veggie side, instead. It was nice to put them in something so hearty. In summary: a fresh, light take on a comfort classic!

Courgette and Lemon Risotto
serves 2

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed/minced
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/3 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)
2 cups hot vegetable stock (I used chicken stock since that's what I had)
juice and zest of half a lemon
2-3 courgettes/zucchinis, grated
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
handful of shredded basil
salt and pepper

Wrap the grated zucchini in a clean towel and squeeze out all the extra liquid. A lot will come out and that's important so don't skip this step!

Heat the oil and butter in a medium pan. Add the onion and cook until it has softened. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute. Stir in the rice and make sure it is coated with the butter/oil. "Toast" it for a bit. Increase the heat and add the wine, stirring while it reduces.

Add a ladle of the vegetable (or chicken) stock to the rice and stir continuously until the liquid has almost all been absorbed. Continue adding the stock by the ladle until the rice is cooked (risotto should still have a little bite to it, just like al dente pasta).

When the rice is done, add the zucchini, basil, lemon, lemon zest, parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

 

I love roasted chestnuts. Just the other day, I was thinking just how deep my love is for roasted chestnuts, so I bought some. Then, almost immediately after, I ran across this recipe from the New York Times for brussels sprouts and chestnuts in brown butter sauce.  I decided it had to be made, and it had to be made soon.

When I was young, I used to eat chesnuts all.the.time. My grandma would always roast a handful of them just for me, in the toaster oven, and I would devour them when they were still steaming.

Roasting chestnuts is really easy. You don't even need an open fire :) Just cut an X or a slit on the rounded part of the nut (this helps the steam escape) and roast them in a 425 or 450 oven for about half an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 When they're done, peel them and eat them right away. They are so delicious when they are so hot and fresh out of the oven. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 My love affair with brussels sprouts is, well, nonexistant. I don't really have much experience with them, to be honest. We didn't eat them growing up and the couple times I have eaten/made them, I tend to make them with bacon, wine and butter, sucking the health right out of them. I guess "indifferent" would describe the way I feel about brussels sprouts. That said, I figure when you are indifferent about something and you combine it with two incredibly delicious things (namely, roasted chestnuts and brown butter), it *has* to elevate it to a more positive level. And I was right. This was great!

I quartered the recipe, but otherwise made no changes. If you want to keep this vegetarian, just use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. We ate this with some very un-vegetarian pork tenderloin milanese :)

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving! I realize I am a little late on that, but I've been out of state since Tuesday. I had a great Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see my family, especially since I haven't seen them since July. I hope you all had a great holiday! I'm sorry to say I won't be updating the blog with any ideas for leftover meals since I thought it better not to fly with leftovers :)

I know I have mentioned on here before that my family does not cook with recipes, and I don't really, either. A big reason I started this blog back in the day was to document recipes--be it actually measuring things out when creating my own concoctions or trying to figure out via trial and error what, exactly, make the dishes my grandmothers prepare so much better than the ones anyone else does. One of my favorite dishes my paternal grandmother (grandma = "yiayia") makes is plasto. I think plasto must be regional, because I've never heard of anyone else who makes it, nor have I ever seen it on a menu at a Greek restaurant. Even an internet search didn't yield much in the way of results, so perhaps its name is also regional (if you're curious, yiayia is from a smallish town in Greece called Karditsa). At any rate, plasto is basically a savory pie of greens and cornmeal crust. The filling is similar to spinach pie/spanakopita, but with a little more variety. The crust is what makes this different than traditional spanakopita and, in my opinion, much tastier.

A while back, I asked my grandmother how she made her plasto. As I said, I love the dish and enjoy variations of spanakopita. By variations, I mean methods for the lazy. I am a pretty terrible Greek when it comes to phyllo--I hate using it. I tend to make my mini spanakopitas with puff pastry, actually, because I'm too lazy and impatient when it comes to working with phyllo. My yiayia said that of course she couldn't tell me how to make plasto--but, she could show me. So, when we were in town for Thanksgiving, we headed to yiayia's to get a lesson in plasto.

You'll have to excuse most of the pictures below as my grandma isn't used to the idea of photographing food, let alone delaying the process of cooking with something crazy like taking pictures. Most of the pictures turned out blurry because she was moving so fast. The woman put the plasto together in like 10-15 minutes, I kid you not!  Eventually I will make this at home with better measurements than what is below (and probably not in the yiayia-sized pan, since it's just the two of us eating it), but I thought I'd give the basic method and share some pictures for now.

I decided to submit this to the Festive Food Fair 2007 hosted by Morsels & Musings because not only is it a food that is important to my culture (and certainly served at family holidays), it's something my yiayia always makes when I visit, so it's definitely something special to me. I'm so happy I got a chance to learn how to make this delicious dish and spend some quality time with yiayia!

Also, like 95% of the internet-using population, I finally created a Flickr account. I'll probably move all my food photographs over there, eventually, but for now, I've added the pics below onto my Flickr page. This is essentially the same content as below, but if vox is overstimulating, you may want to head to the Flickr page :)

Cooking with Yiayia: A Lesson in Plasto

First, clean (and dry) all your greens (or "horta"). You can use anything you want, really. Sometimes my grandmother will use dandelion greens. For today, we used about 1.5 lbs of spinach, a bunch of swiss chard, a few sliced leeks (make sure to wash them well; use both the whites and greens), and about 1/2 cup of fresh dill.  Mix them all together.

 

To the greens, you will want to add some feta cheese (about a pound crumbled), a couple pinches of salt and a little extra virgin olive oil (probably 2 Tbsp.).

 

Spread some softened butter and olive oil on the bottom of your pan. Yes, this will help with sticking but more importantly, it will give flavor (and cohesion) to the pie. So don't be too stingy with the fatty goodness!

 

In a bowl, mix one container of yellow cornmeal with a pinch of salt and some milk (and sure, you can use fat free to combat some of the oil/butter). For a whole container of cornmeal, you will probably use about a cup of milk here, but go by consistency. The mixture should be soft and moist, but still slightly crumbly when you pick it up.

 

Place half the cormeal mixture in the pan.

Press the mixture down, evenly, to form a crust.

 

Now, add the greens/feta mixture over the bottom crust.

 

Spread the mixture evenly.

 

Whoops, I think we need some more cheese! Use your judgment here as you may already have a good amount of feta, but my judgment always says "more cheese."

 

Now, to the remaining cornmeal mixture, you will want to add some milk. You don't want the mixture to be too liquidy or pourable (ignore the picture here as we added more cornmeal, but I wanted to add a picture of every step and this is all I had), but it will be sort of spreadable whereas the other mixture was more crumby. Maybe about 1/2 cup milk. 

 

Now--you guessed it--put the other half of the cornmeal mixture on top of the greens to form an upper crust.

 

It's evenly pressed down and almost done, but...

 

it needs some more olive oil and a few dollops of butter on top.

 

A-ha! Now it's ready to go into the oven. The oven temperature was everything from 550 to 350 while I was there, so this, too, is unscientific. However, I would say about 400 or 425 for 50 minutes, or until the crust is set and golden brown should do it.

Mmm, it's done! Look at that yummy looking, golden brown crust!

 

Time to slice into that puppy

...and plate it up.

 

Here's my serving. Sure, it's not the most beautiful *looking* thing but...

it sure tastes good!

 

Tom likes it, too!

 

And yiayia gets to enjoy the fruits (vegetables?) of her labor.

Good to the last bite.

 

The Chefs! (Yes, I am named after my yiayia, although my full name is just Elly whereas her name is Eretheli but people call her Elly).