TRADITIONAL VLACHIKO PIE

GIORGOS KARAMICHOS – ACTOR

In my childhood home, pie was like bread. It accompanied every meal. It was a regular working man’s lunch in the fields or while herding your goats. You’d take a break from your work or play to have a bite. The wood-fired oven in the village would fill the air with fragrance every time the pie was baking – or the stove in Veria when we came home from school in winter. Every kind of smell and flavour, depending on the season. Pumpkin pie (sweet or savory), herb pie, onion pie, spinach pie, cheese pie, milk pie. Flour on the table. “Hold on, let me prepare a pie because your aunt from Farsala will be visiting tomorrow”, “put on a cap, we don’t want any hairs falling into the dough”, “easy with the butter, we don’t want it to be greasy like the fat neighbour’s”, “never ourda (myzithra). Not in my pie. Only goat cheese here”, “repel the evil eye, we need to make sure the dough doesn’t go all lumpy”… So many memories. Home. Family. Flavours. Drama. Secrets and lies. But pie was like a salve on the wounds of excessive affection, convention and lack of freedom. 

RECIPE

Phyllo 

Ingredients

450 g hard flour (type M)

300 g soft flour or all-purpose flour

1 small cup olive oil

2 tablespoons vinegar

About half a kilo (two cups) of room-temperature water

1½ teaspoons salt

Margarine or vitam

In a large bowl, sift in the flour and add the salt, oil and vinegar. Slowly add the water and knead until a smooth dough forms. Knead all the ingredients together, adding water until the dough stops sticking to your hands. Once done, separate the dough into 2 equal parts and form two balls. Store in the refrigerator or somewhere else safe and let rest for half an hour. 

Using a rolling pin, roll out the first ball. Brush with oil and butter and, using a knife, form the shape of a sun with a large circular piece in the centre and rays branching out, cutting in circular patterns between them. Place each piece in the centre and then roll out the dough with the rolling pin again. Repeat twice, always brushing the pieces of dough you add to the centre of the pie with margarine. 

Repeat this process with the second ball. 

Filling

800 g spinach or greens, well washed. 

400 g feta cheese

4 eggs

Salt, pepper.

Mix the ingredients together using your hands. If using greens instead of spinach, you may need to boil them beforehand depending on the variety. Spinach is best used raw, to maintain its flavour. 

Preparation

Thoroughly grease the baking tray (using both butter and oil) and spread the first phyllo sheet, ensuring it covers the bottom and sides of the tray. Add some butter over it.

Add the filling, ensuring it goes everywhere evenly. 

Lay the second phyllo sheet over the filling and join the edges of the 2 sheets, folding them inwards to make the “kontouros”.

Bake in an oven pre-heated to 200°C for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 180°C. Bake for about an hour, until it turns golden brown. Using a toothpick, poke the pie to see whether the inside is cooked.

Remove from the oven, set on the stove top or the kitchen table, and cover with a clean kitchen towel to rest. 

Let rest for ten minutes, then cut into pieces and enjoy!