* Exported from MasterCook *
YiaYias Spinach Cornbread - Plasto
Recipe By :
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : LowCal (Less than 300 cals) LowerCarbs
Veggie
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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1 1/2 pounds greens -- "horta" in Greek; mixed together spinach, a bunch of Swiss char, a few sliced leeks (washed well, rinsed clear)
1/2 cup fresh dill
1 pound feta cheese -- crumbled
2 pinches salt -- or to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
To grease pan: -- softened butter & olive oil mixed together
1 package cornmeal
1 pinch salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup milk -- seperate and yes additonal
To top: addtional olive oil and butter
Preheat oven at 400 or 425F. Using a 14 to 16 inch circular pan, two-inches deep.
Clean and dry all your greens [horta in Greek]. For today, we used about 1.5 lbs of spinach, a bunch of swiss chard, a few sliced leeks (make sure to wash them well), and about 1/2 cup of fresh dill. Mix them all together.
To the greens, you will want to add some feta cheese (about a pound crumbled), a couple pinches of salt and a little extra virgin olive oil (probably 2 Tbsp.).
Spread some softened butter and olive oil on the bottom of your pan. Yes, this will help with sticking but more importantly, it will give flavor (and cohesion) to the pie. So don't be too stingy with the fatty goodness!
In a bowl, mix one container of yellow cornmeal with a pinch of salt and some milk (and sure, you can use fat free to combat some of the oil/butter). For a whole container of cornmeal, you will probably use about a cup of milk here, but go by consistency. The mixture should be soft and moist, but still slightly crumbly when you pick it up.
Place half the cormeal mixture in the pan. Press the mixture down, evenly, to form a crust.
Now, add the greens/feta mixture over the bottom crust. Spread the mixture evenly.
Whoops, I think we need some more cheese! Use your judgment here as you may already have a good amount of feta, but my judgment always says "more cheese."
Now, to the remaining cornmeal mixture, you will want to add some milk. You don't want the mixture to be too liquidy or pourable (ignore the picture here as we added more cornmeal, but I wanted to add a picture of every step and this is all I had), but it will be sort of spreadable whereas the other mixture was more crumby. Maybe about 1/2 cup milk.
Now–you guessed it–put the other half of the cornmeal mixture on top of the greens to form an upper crust. It's evenly pressed down and almost done, but…
it needs some more olive oil and a few dollops of butter on top.
Bake for 50 minutes or until the crust is set and golden brown.
Serves 12
AuthorNote: One of my favorite dishes my paternal grandmother (grandma = "yiayia") makes is plasto. I think plasto must be regional, because I've never heard of anyone else who makes it, nor have I ever seen it on a menu at a Greek restaurant. Even an internet search didn't yield much in the way of results, so perhaps its name is also regional (if you're curious, yiayia is from a smallish town in Greece called Karditsa). At any rate, plasto is basically a savory pie of greens and cornmeal crust. The filling is similar to spinach pie/spanakopita, but with a little more variety. The crust is what makes this different than traditional spanakopita and, in my opinion, much tastier.
Cuisine:
"Greek"
Source:
"Ellysay Sopa for Cooking with Yiayia: A Lesson in Plasto,"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"July 2011"
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 195 Calories; 12g Fat (52.6% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 38mg Cholesterol; 485mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat.
Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
