How to Incorporate Homemade Yogurt, Wild Fermented Vegetables, and Beef into a Delicious Spiral Pie
- Vince Crotta
- Feb 6
- 3 min read
Inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. Yesterday, when I was grocery shopping at the local Aldi I looked into the freezer case and noticed a Greek Style Spiral pie with spinach and cheese. It was only 5 dollars, and I looked at the back panel to check the ingredients, I noticed cotton seed oil and put it down immediately.
I remembered I can cook; I can bake and I can make phyllo pastry. Why should I pay for food made with substandard ingredients when my home pantry was full and I had the time to make something truly scrumptious.
I went home and began to make the spiral pie.
First thing was first, I made the filling. Begin with some beef cheeks; these, I had cooked months ago, found them in the back of the freezer and thawed them out. I pulled some fermented wild garlic tops that had begun to grow a little kahm yeast, and thus let me know it was time for me to use them.
Adding some spices, homemade yogurt, and ricotta cheese I mixed the filling and let it sit to the side for a while for the flavors to marry.
Then we began to make the pastry.
Phyllo is a pastry I find very calming to make as it requires steady hands or it rips. This pastry is also a quicker way to get a laminated dough as it calls for almost no resting time. It has very few ingredients and the method is really quite quick and easy assuming you have a pasta machine and some strength in your hands to knead the slightly stiff dough.
After rolling out the pastry and filling the pie, I greased the top generously with lard and sprinkled on some finishing salt; it was time to put it in the oven and wait for it to turn a beautiful medium golden brown.
After patiently waiting, I was finally rewarded with a delicious, golden, crispy, pie with a moist, creamy, well spiced filling.
To watch me make this click here!
Ingredients:
Filling:
~1300g Beef, I used cheeks that I had slow cooked.
~850g Wild Vegetables
~650g wild garlic tops
~200g garlic mustard leaves
-200g Yogurt
-350g Ricotta
Spices:
-pinch of cumin seeds
-2 star anise paddles
-1 clove -pinch whole sichuan pepper corns
-Pinch corriander seeds
-1/4 stick cinnamon
-2 allspice berries
-pinch staghorn sumac
-pinch dried sweetfern leaves
-pinch dried fenugreek
-1t Paprika
-1t cayenne pepper
-1t black pepper (ground)
-Pinch dried thyme
-Pinch dried Oregano
-Belt of lemon rind
Pastry:
-500g All purpose flour
~185lm water
-5g salt
-25g honey
-Lard
Method:
To make the filling:
Drain the fermented wild vegetables of all brine and puree in a food processor until smooth.
Roughly chop the beef into small irregular chunks.
Add wild vegetables, beef, yogurt, and ricotta to a large bowl.
Grind whole spices and add to the large bowl.
Add the remainder of spices to a large bowl.
Mix everything well and leave to the side for flavors to marry while you make the pastry
To make the Pastry:
In a large bowl, add all the ingredients EXCEPT the lard and mix well.
When stiff but pliant dough has formed knead a few times on the counter and leave to rest.
Set up pasta machine
Divide dough into 4 equal parts
Roll out dough using a pasta machine until it is as thin as possible.
Grease dough tops with lard and stretch out further(see video)
Make a line of filling in the stretched phyllo dough.
Roll up the first layer.
Repeat rolling out dough and wrapping pie until no more dough is left
Grease the top of the pie with more lard and sprinkle with finishing salt.
Bake at 400 for 25 mins and 350 for 20 mins, or until the outside is a medium golden brown.
Remove from oven and cook for a few minutes
Cut and serve hot.
Enjoy!
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