The following recipe for Spanikopita is from SurvivalBlog reader Mrs. Alaska.
She writes: This recipe is adapted from one in the wonderful book, The Boreal Forest, by Beverly Gray.
While traditional spanakopita is made with spinach, feta cheese, and phyllo pastry, the fact is that the filling can be made with ANY cookable leafy green (wild or domesticated) and any cheese. The phyllo, too, can be replaced with pie crust (so it would then be a quiche) or topped with biscuits, or spread over puff pastry.
For the spanakopita:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together 2 cups of feta (or other cheese), 2 cups of cottage (or other) cheese, 5 eggs, 2 TBS of flour or corn starch, herbs and seasonings of choice — such as salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. I also add the juice and zest of one lemon.
In a wide pan, on low heat, wilt 5 cups of chopped greens with NO WATER. Traditionally, this is spinach, but I have also used dandelion, cabbage, and mixed leaves of beets, turnips, mustard, radish, lamb’s quarter, broccoli, and cauliflower. Obviously, the flavor will vary but the texture will not.
Add the wilted greens to the cheese mixture.
To make with phyllo:
Melt a stick of butter.
Butter a 9 x 12 baking pan.
Unroll a package of phyllo and cover the sheets so they will not dry out as you work.
One at a time, layer about 8 leaves of pastry, buttering each one. Then spread half or all of the greens/cheese mixture. Top with another 8 leaves of pastry, each one buttered, or insert an intermediate layer of phyllo if you wish.
Bake, uncovered for 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.
STORAGE
This freezes well and reheats well. I love it for breakfast with a fried egg on top.
Alternatives include pre-baking a pie shell or puff pastry and then topping them with the cheese/greens mixture and cooking for another 20 minutes for the thinly topped puff pastry or 40 minutes for the quiche.
Mrs. Alaska writes a blog about her off-grid life in remote Alaska.
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