Foodie Friday - Rustic Spinach Pie

In an attempt to get back to what I love to do (food - make it, eat it, share it, etc.) I've decided to try some various recipes, tweak them until I'm happy and then share them on the odd Friday, once they're ready.

Today's recipe I've only tried once, and loved it. I found a recipe online, to try to recreate Nanny Nola's famous spinach pie recipe. She once showed me the recipe, but since then and since her passing, that recipe is long gone. So I'm creating my own version. I thought it'd take a few attempts and various recipes to find one I'm happy with - but this one worked and with my own changes it's going into the archives.

The original recipe called for frozen spinach, but I have SO much silverbeet in my garden that I had to use it.

So here we go...

You'll need:

· 250g good-sized potato or two, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes

· 60g butter

· 2 medium onions, finely diced

· 1 bunch silverbeet, washed and roughly chopped

· 2/3 cup grated yellow cheese + 3 tbs grated parmesan

· 1/2 cup sour cream

· 2 eggs

· 1/2 tsp grated fresh nutmeg

· extra 20g butter for greasing (melt or use solid block and rub into pan)

· 2-3 sheets butter puff pastry, just thawed

· 1 tbs cold water

METHOD

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a deep 6-cup capacity fluted tart pan with extra butter.

Filling

· Cook potato in a saucepan of boiling water for 8 minutes or until just tender. Drain well.

· Melt butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Cook onion for 5 minutes or until soft.

· Combine spinach, potato, cheese and onion in a bowl.

· Whisk together sour cream, egg + egg white (reserve the yolk for eggwash) and nutmeg in a jug. Season (if desired). Add to spinach mixture and stir to combine.

Pastry

· Cut strips of 1 pastry sheet and attach to a whole sheet to extend the size (if your pan is larger than your sheets of pastry).

· Line base and sides of pan with pastry sheets.

Put it together

· Spoon spinach mixture into pastry shell.

· Place remaining pastry over pie. Trim and press edges together to seal.

· Cut a small cross in centre of pastry lid. Use leftover pastry to decorate if you wish. Whisk together egg yolk and cold water in a cup or bowl. Brush pie with egg wash.

· Season with sea salt flakes and black pepper. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm with a salad or a bowl or freshly picked homegrown cherry tomatoes.

Enjoy!