Serves 6

This is easy Sunday comfort food. Usually when the sun is blazing and the garden is alive with summer sounds, you’ll always find me cooking outside. I even had a custom built barbecue made, complete with a smoking oven, granite counters and rustic stone features.  It’s such a joy to have, my outdoor kitchen, where friends can prop up and chill out whilst I cook beside them.

Today, it’s a little chilly in Nairobi and living in the heart of the countryside , we feel it a bit more! I had a overflowing basket of fresh herbs and spinach delivered just this morning from my parent’s greenhouses just down the road.( another blog coming very soon!) When the vegetables are in full bloom, it’s such a wonderful thing to see such abundance and I always take the kids along to pick the new season vegetables with me…

So with such gloriously emerald green spinach and fragrant parsley, the first thing on my mind was a delicate spinach, mushroom and leek layer pie, filled with paper thin filo pastry. This will be lovely for a light Sunday lunch.

  • 1 kilo fresh spinach, washed and chopped
  • 12 sheets of filo pastry
  • 1 large leek, very finely sliced
  • 2 tsp of freshly chopped garlic
  • 1 bunch of garlic chives, finely chopped. (I use this because it grows abundantly in my garden but normal chives will suffice)
  • 2 bunches of flat leaf parsley, washed and roughly chopped
  • 1 punnet of mushrooms ( button  or straw mushrooms are fine, as oyster mushrooms are too meaty for this dish), finely sliced
  • 1 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese
  • 1 tsp of Spanish paprika
  • 1/2 tsp of dried red chilli ( this gives a touch of heat, but increase it if you would prefer it more fiery to 1 tsp)
  • 2 tsp Zatar ( this fragrant moorish sesame seed spice mix adds a kick to the ricotta cheese ) if you don’t have it, don’t worry, buy it for next time!
  • 1/2 cup of cream
  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 3 tbs of olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

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  • Preheat the oven to 180°c
  • Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan till hot but not smoking. Add the garlic, frying gently for a minute or so without letting it brown.
  • Add the leeks and fry gently again for another 4- 5 minutes until the leeks are soft and translucent.
  • Now add the mushrooms , again frying gently, combining everything until the mushrooms are also softened.
  • Add the spinach, garlic chive, parsley, Spanish paprika, Zatar, salt and black pepper and the nutmeg. Cook for a further five minutes, until the spinach has wilted, turning over gently so as not to crush the ingredients. You want to loose soft, fragrant filling Set aside and leave to cool for five minutes
  • In the meantime, butter a deep ovenproof dish.
  • Now, to finish the filling. Once the spinach is cooled add the beaten eggs, the ricotta and combine well.
  • Now start to layer the dish up. First place four sheets of FILO pastry, buttering each one in between me. The butter will help to crisp up the FILO beautifully. Add one layer of the spinach filling and pour a few tablespoons of cream on top. Repeat the same for two more layers, finishing with a FILO layer.
  • Butter the top generously and place directly into the oven for 45 minutes, checking regularly so the FILO topping does not brown too much.

Enjoy this with a lovely chilled glass of your favorite Chablis. Sunday bliss.

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