How do YOU make spanakopita?

[MaMight]

I know how one makes spanakopita. I would love to know Mumsnetters' variations and tips.

eek!

Man I totally totally want to eat one now...feta cheese and spinach and pastry mmmmmmmmm

Something in me is shouting out that garlic would be lovely somewhere in that dish. Or aibu?

Serenity - the mint thing makes me laugh. DH claims he doesn't like mint. Fine. Except that all greek recipes have mint and he LOVES them. He claims that the meatballs I make for him are exactly like his grandmothers and... yes, they have mint. Copious amounts of it (sorry, can't remember what they're called).

While we're doing Greek recipes, anyone got a good one for Pistachio (sorry, don't know how to spell?). DH's family keep promising me the family recipe and it's not appearing. I'm starting to suspect that I haven't qualified yet...!

Well I'm going with spinach, spring onions, mint and ricotta. And they are for a tapas night so I may fashion them into individual thingies.

Oh, and eggs and seasoning and oil.

I should probably be making them now instead of reading AIBU threads and eating crisps.

Blingloving - Pastitsio aka Meat and Macaroni Pie, or Pastitsia aka Almond biscuity things? (Sheftalia for the meatballs?)

I personally would kill for an easy way to get hold of Goubas/Koupes. MIL can only make them in 'Wedding' quantities, so if she hasn't got a batch in the freezer we have to do without pouts childishly I could make some, but I'm lazy

Meat and macaroni. The almond things I have a recipe for although I am concerned I've lost it.

What's Goubas/Koupes? I have a fantastic greek meze recipe book I can check for you.

oh, sorry, you don't want a recipe. Tell me what they are anyway...

I love koupes, I mean really really love them. When I have a real craving for them, I get a few from my local Lebanese restaurant - they're nowhere as good as Cypriot ones, but beggars can't be choosers and all that. I think they call them kebbeh in Arabic.

so is it a spinach, feta and pastry pie?

oh god I luuuurve kebbeh

I was thinking of making some the other day, I had such a craving.

We used to buy them from the African ladies sitting on the pavements outside our school at lunchtime.

What's a kebbeh?

it's a lovely meatball made with minced lamb and pine nuts and wrapped in a mincemeat and burghur wheat layer (like a scotch egg) and then either fried or baked. lovely.

here

Mmm... that does sound good. i think I had something very similar at a lebanese restaurant recently. And it was delicious.

I love greek food.

MILs are shaped like sausages, are filled with onion, minced lamb and mint (surprise!), and covered in the burghur wheat layer then deep fried. You then eat them warm with loads of lemon squeezed over them, and even my most picky child will eat them by the bushel. They're one of those things that are unique to the cook though. You can always taste who's made them!

I've just found an icecream tub in the bottom of my freezer with about 10 uncooked koupes in it. I have no idea how old they are... I don't fry anything other than eggs, so don't have enough oil to deep fry them... Dammit, I'm going to have to buy some on the way back from school aren't I?!

Blingloving - will type out recipe for Pastitsio when I get a chance

Thank you!

This is how I make pastitsio:

saute 2 medium onions finely diced
add 500g mince (beef steak), stir, brown and de-lump
add 2-3 ripe tomatoes
salt, pepper, bay leaf, basil
cook for about 30 mins

Half cook 1kg approx macaroni. Layer in rectangular pyrex dish with sauce and top with bechamel. Cook for about 30/40 mins at 180/200c.

I don't use as much bechamel sauce as greek recipe nor do I pour vast quantities of olive oil over the cooked macaroni. I sometimes add cinamon to the meat sauce though and/or pinch nutmeg to the bechamel.

My children love this and I often add a couple of carrots, celery, mushrooms for their benefit.

The recipe book has confused me. As I said, it's not professional, and I think they've messed it up a bit!

Anyway, what Castles says above (or below depending on how you look at MN!) except MIL would use vast amounts of mint. The mince has to be quite dry, and MIL whisks two eggs into the bechamel (except she just does a white sauce, not what I call a bechamel sauce where you flavour the milk with onion, cloves and bay leaf before you make it) so it goes semi-solid as it cools.

I'll admit I like it with the macaroni drizzled with oil before you add the meat, plus I feel sacrilegious if I make it with cut macaroni rather than the long stuff.

Oh and I think MIL puts cheese in hers, parmasan (sp. sorry) or dry anhari sprinkled on the meat/macaroni before the sauce is added.

My dh makes spanny (insider nickname)with spinach, leeks, dill, fennel, onions, garlic and ricota, in layers and layers of filo drenched in olive oil. Is superb.

Am I the only one who has never heard of spanakopita? Sound yummy though. Love pastichio (sp) though, can someone tell me what exactly a bechamel sauce is? Is it just a white sauce or is there more to it?

I put cinammon in the meat (and often use lamb instead of beef) and nutmeg and egg yolks in the bechamel.

Now you've made me want to go to Greece

Bumperlicioso - as far as I know (or at least according to the recipe book I learnt it from) Bechamel is a white sauce made with flavoured milk. You heat the milk (jug full? So checks jug pint, pint and a quarter?) with an onion, studded with 5/6 cloves and a couple of bay leaves and then let it sit for a few minutes, then just make the sauce as usual. Me - melt butter, add flour, make a roux then whisk in milk. MIL - dump everything in saucepan, whisk like mad, pray and ignore lumps...

I've seen variations though.