Nothing
infuriates me more than people wasting my time. Time moves only in one
direction: it never comes back.
I write this
because I am still angry with the organisers of an art performance. The other
day, I was invited to participate in a performance. I thought it might be
interesting and fun and promised to be there. The beginning of the performance
was announced for 6 pm – we were asked to be there half an hour earlier for a
briefing. The evening before, an assistant even called me up to make sure I
would be there at 5.30 pm sharp.
I have been
educated that punctuality is a sign of respect and polite behaviour. It is ingrained
in my soul. I don’t want to make people wait for me and I have difficulties if
this courtesy is not reciprocated.
Goa is not known
for punctuality but I thought I have to be there because they asked me to be
sharp on time. Being familiar with local customs, I arrived 15 minutes late. Unfortunately, I
was way too early. I had to stand around for three quarters of an hour before
anything happened. The artist did not consider it necessary to apologize for
the delay. He did not even mention it. He also took the fun out of the
experience by forbidding all participants to laugh or to show any emotional
reaction. At this point I was furious but I kept my feelings in check as best
as I could.
The set up for the performance was so stupid and superficial that I deeply
regretted my participation. I left with the promise to myself that I will never
let anybody waste my time again and that I am done with performances that I
don’t choreograph myself. Before committing my time again, I will think long
and hard.
I should have
stayed at home and cooked something healthy for my family – for example this
month’s recipe, spannakopitta, Greek spinach pie. A real spannakopitta in
Greece is made with puff pastry. I must admit that I never tried to make real
puff pastry. It is one of the things I intend to learn before I die – if I
don’t get caught up in too many art performances.
I make a short
crust pastry with oil and whole wheat instead of puff pastry. My journey with
short crust is a rather rocky one with many failures. I decided to give my
spannakopitta a makeover after people complained that my pastry is too heavy.
Honestly, I like a crust that I can sink my teeth into but many people don’t
share this attitude.
As a consequence
I learned a lot about different kinds of short crusts and I came up with the
technique described in this newsletter. The main thing to remember is to move
the flour as little as possible because you don’t want to activate the gluten.
Ingredients:
(for
8 servings or a 29-cm, 12.5-in pie dish)
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 10 tablespoons olive oil
- 6 bundles spinach (about 500 grams)
- 2 leeks
- 2 bundles spring onions
- 1 ½ packets feta cheese (300 grams)
- 1 egg yolk
- cold water
- salt
- pepper
Method:
Clean the spinach
carefully, throwing away all brownish leaves. Wash and cut into pieces roughly.
Clean the leeks and the spring onions and cut them into pieces too.
Mix the spinach,
leeks and spring onions with three teaspoons salt in a big bowl thoroughly
using your hands and crushing the leaves. Let it sit so the salt pulls out the
water from the spinach.
Put the flour into
a mixing bowl. Add eight tablespoons olive oil – also a little more would not
hurt – and one teaspoon salt. Add some water and mix it carefully with a spoon.
Add water until you feel that all the flour might bind.
Carefully press
the mixture together until you have a big clump of dough. Never mind if it is
not mixed completely and still a little crumbly.
Wrap the dough in
cling film and let it rest for half an hour in the fridge.
Drain all the
accumulated juice from the spinach mixture in a sieve and put it into a mixing
bowl. Cut the feta cheese into cubes. Mix the drained vegetables with the
cheese, two tablespoons olive oil and pepper. Taste it, probably you won’t have
to add salt.
Spread olive oil
over a pie form with.
When the dough has
rested enough, spread cling film over your working surface. Take a bit more
than half the dough. Never mind if it looks spotty. This ensures a flaky crust.
Place it on the cling film, flatten it a bit and cover it with cling film.
Roll it out as
thin as possible. You need to lift the upper cling film as the dough spreads
out to give it room.
Make sure that the
dough is big enough to cover the bottom of the pie form and more than height of
the sides.
Pull off the cling
film from the top and place the sheet upside down into the pie form with the
help of the rolling pin. You need the dough to overlap the sides of the form.
Spread the spinach
in the pie form and tuck the overlapping dough over it.
Roll out the rest
of the dough between cling film and cover the spinach. Cut off any overlapping
dough from the cover. You can use leftovers to cut out some decorations if you
feel inclined to do so. I always make a few leaves.
Mix the egg yolk
with a pinch of salt and brush the surface of the spannakopitta. Poke some
holes with a fork so the steam can escape during baking.
Bake the spinach
pie in the oven at 190 degrees Celsius for about one hour and 20 minutes until
it is golden brown. It tastes good warm or cold.
