tastes of Greece -
Can you stand from biting this piece of cheese pie? I could not...😉
My grandmother used to make it for us when we were visiting her. So warm and crunchy I remember I used to grab it before the pie was even well cooled.
It is the first thing we think to get from a bakery when we are hungry and the first thing children prefer to buy from their school canteen.
I remember when me and my future husband at the time were together as teenagers on summer holiday in the beautiful island of Sifnos we always enjoyed having for breakfast a nice warm tiropita together with a bottle of cold chocolate milk...
It is the delicacy with which the Greeks have associated myriad of memories of their lives...
The recipe of chef Akis Petretzikis is the one I like the most:
Ingredients:
450 g phyllo dough sheets, 500 g feta cheese, 150 g gruyere cheese grated, 1 liter milk, 100 g butter, 100 g all-purpose flour, 2 egg yolks, nutmeg, salt, pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 180* C (360* F).
For the béchamel:
Heat the butter in a pot just until it melts, add the flour and start mix with a hand whisk.
Add the milk in small batches while whisking continuously. Wait for each batch of milk to be completely incorporated into the mixture before adding the next one. This way no lumps will form. Repeat process until all of the milk has been added. Let the béchamel sauce simmer for a bit and add a generous amount of freshly ground pepper and nutmeg.
Add the grated gruyere cheese and stir with a spatula. As soon as the gruyere melts and is combined, add the feta cheese. Stir.
Taste and adjust salt and pepper, if needed.
Add the eggs and stir to combine. Set aside until needed.
Grease a 30x40 cm baking pan. Spread one sheet of phyllo on the bottom of the pan and drizzle with melted butter. Do not brush the phyllo directly with your pastry brush because it won't give you the crunchy result you want.
Divide package of phyllo dough in half.
So drizzle each phyllo with melted butter, roughly fold together and add to the baking pan. Repeat process until this half of the phyllo dough has been added, all roughly folded and set one next to the other, gently in the pan.
Pour the béchamel sauce carefully over the folded phyllo dough without pressing on them or flattening them.
Repeat the same process with the remaining half of the phyllo dough that was set aside, apart from 2 sheets which should be added spread out, as a top layer.
Score pie and pour soda water over it. Set aside for 5 minutes
Bake for approx. 50 minutes, until phyllo is golden and crunchy.
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