Spring is here: flowers are blooming, sun is shining and frogs are croaking
Spanakopita
with side salad from the garden
Pineapple upside-down cake
Harvest of the day: parsley, lettuce leaves, mizuna, chives, wild garlic
Spanakopita (Crispy Greek-style pie) – serves 4
Ingredients
- 200g bag spinach leaves
- 175g jar sundried tomato in oil
- 100g feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 eggs
- 125g filo pastry
Method
Put the spinach into a large pan. Pour over a couple tbsp water, then cook until just wilted. Tip into a sieve, leave to cool a little, then squeeze out any excess water and roughly chop. Roughly chop the tomatoes and put into a bowl along with the spinach, feta and eggs. Mix well.
Carefully unroll the filo pastry. Cover with some damp sheets of kitchen paper to stop it drying out. Take a sheet of pastry and brush liberally with some of the sundried tomato oil. Drape oil-side down in a 22cm loose bottomed cake tin so that some of the pastry hangs over the side. Brush oil on another piece of pastry and place in the tin, just a little further round. Keep placing the pastry pieces in the tin until you have roughly three layers, then spoon over the filling. Pull the sides into the middle, scrunch up and make sure the filling is covered. Brush with a little more oil.
Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Cook the pie for 30 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Remove from the cake tin, slice into wedges and serve with salad.
Pineapple (or other fruits!) upside down
Ingredients
For the topping
- 50g softened butter
- 50g light soft brown sugar
- 7 pineapple rings in syrup, drained and syrup reserved
- 7 glacé cherries
For the cake
- 100g softened butter
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 100g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
Method
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
For the topping, beat 50g softened butter and 50g light soft brown sugar together until creamy. Spread over the base and a quarter of the way up the sides of a 20cm round cake tin. Arrange 7 pineapple rings on top (reserving the syrup for later), then place 7 glacé cherries in the centres of the rings.
Place 100g softened butter, 100g golden caster sugar, 100g self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 eggs in a bowl along with 2 tbsp of the reserved pineapple syrup. Using an electric whisk, beat to a soft consistency.
Spoon into the tin on top of the pineapple and smooth it out so it’s level. Bake for 35 mins. Leave to stand for 5 mins, then turn out onto a plate. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.
Grow Dundee 