If You Like Greek Spanakopita (Spinach Pie), Try This

Today I'm making lunch of roasted red pepper soup flavored with smoked paprika. I'm going to serve that with a classic greek dish of hartopita, which is a lot like spinacopita but with some different greens inside. And I'm going to follow it up with an old school dessert of lemon snow. And this type of lunch is perfect for something like a book club or a garden party because it serves a lot of people but the flavors are interesting. We're going to get started with the lemon snow because it takes the longest and if you've never had it you're in for a treat because it is like a chilled lemon souffle with meringue and a potent lemon flavor. And just before serving you drizzle it with a chilled vanilla custard sauce and it is out of this world. So to start you need to bloom some gelatin which takes about five minutes. This is a quarter cup of water over which I sprinkled two teaspoons of gelatin. I've let it sit. You can see it's pretty solid. That just hydrates the gelatin. Now we're going to melt it with some boiling water. So you want a cup of boiling water. So now I'm going to whisk in the boiling water and melt the gelatin. And this two-step method for hydrating the melting gelatin just ensures that it will work properly in the finished dessert. Now to flavor this we're going to add a teaspoon of grated fresh lemon zest, a third of a cup fresh lemon juice, a cup of sugar, and a pinch of salt. You just want to whisk it make sure all that sugar is dissolved. All right so there we have our mixture. I'm going to cover it with plastic wrap and now this has to chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before we make the snow. Okay so let's get started on the hortopita which as I mentioned is a lot like spanakopita but horta means greens and so it's similar with layers of phyllo and some feta but the greens instead of spinach use a variety. And today I'm going to use some kale, some swiss chard, and some dandelion greens which have a lovely tender texture and slightly bitter flavor. So we're going to have to cook these greens before we chop it up and mix it with everything else in the filling and you want a total of about one and a quarter pounds of greens and then you want to stem the greens. You're just ripping out any tough stems. You can do this with a knife or with your finger and we're going to cook them. Now the kale takes a little longer to cook than the swiss chard and the dandelion. The kale takes four minutes the other greens take two minutes so I'm going to give these greens a two minute head start. Over here I have a big pot of boiling water. Oh and to it I'm going to add a good amount of salt and in go the kale. While that cooks we'll get the rest of these greens ready. Here's some swiss chard and the dandelion greens. Okay for the chard same thing you just want to remove any thick stems they'll just stick out in the filling and bust through the phyllo dough and make a little hole so you don't want those. I will save these stems though chop them up and put them in my scrambled eggs. I love chard stems. All right set these chard stems aside. It's been two minutes time to add the rest of these greens and we'll cook them for another two minutes. Okay while the greens cook time to slice up some leeks. Just two leeks. We're going to slice them nice and thin. Now the thing about leeks is they're very dirty so I find it best to prep them first and then wash them. So you want to cut off the dark green parts. To slice them thin you just want to slice the leek lengthwise. All right you can even see a lot of the dirt in all those layers of leeks which again that's why I like to cut them first wash them second. Straight into a salad spinner they go. All right these leeks are ready to be washed and these greens are ready to be drained. All right time to drain these greens. Steam bath. Now you can see these greens have wilted down significantly. I'm just running them under cold water to stop the cooking. All right those greens are nice and cool. Now one of the problems with making hortopita is that these greens get really wet and they sog out the phyllo. So what you want to do is take them in your hands and really just squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. All right that's pretty good. While we're here we might as well rinse those leeks. So I love prepping the leeks first and then washing them because they've grown in sandy soil and that sand really gets into all the layers. So it's easier to wash them after you've cut them. It really gets all the sand out. All right that's it for the leeks and the greens. Time to make the filling. First thing we're going to do is get these leeks cooking. So back in the pot on the stove. So here I have three tablespoons of olive oil. I'm going to put it over medium heat. Want that oil to shimmer just a little bit before we add the leeks. All right in go the washed leeks. I'm also going to add three cloves of garlic to the pot. Right through the garlic press. Into the pot with the leeks and a little salt and pepper. All right so we're going to let the leeks and the garlic cook about five minutes until they're nice and softened. All right. Now these greens that we cooked and rinsed and squeezed dry. I know we had this big bowl when we started and now it's this little tiny mound. But this mound makes it perfect to chop them into small pieces which is really nice for a filling. That way you don't get any you know long stringy bits as you're eating. So we're gonna chop them up nice and fine. All right we're gonna put them in a bowl. And now's when you can kind of break up any big pieces because you want them to be evenly dispersed throughout the pastry. You don't want any hard little stones of compressed greens. As I sprinkle them into the bowl just loosen them up a bit. All right that looks pretty good. Let's check on those leeks. Ah they're perfect. You can see they're nicely wilted starting to get a little brown. That's good flavor. I'm just going to add it right to the bowl with the greens. All right just going to set these aside let them cool for a bit get cleaned up and we can make some soup. Love our in-depth reviews? Get the latest from our reviews team delivered straight to your inbox. Our well-equipped cook newsletter provides top product picks, no-nonsense buying guides, and must-try recipes. No extra fluff just the smartest ways to shop, save, and cook. Sign up for free now at americastestkitchen.com slash newsletter. All right it's time to make the roasted red pepper soup. And not surprisingly you have to roast your own peppers. You really don't want to buy the store-bought ones for this. Now it's pretty easy to do at home. You simply take the peppers. This recipe requires eight peppers. You want to flatten them put them over two rimmed baking sheets that are lined with aluminum foil. You want to broil them one at a time. Takes about 10-15 minutes for those peppers to get really good and blackened. And then when they come out from under the broiler you put them right in a bowl cover them with saran wrap and let them steam. And that's how you get peppers that really lift their skin right away. You can see there's a little bit of that charring underneath the skin on the flesh. That's what gives this soup a really good flavor. So just using my hands you can just peel that skin right off. All right that's the hard work. And actually if you are having lunch and you're having people over you can do this well ahead of time. These peppers will hold for at least two days in the fridge before you make the soup. Okay I'm going to set these aside. They're going to go into the pot in a little bit. I'm going to get started by cooking some garlic. So we're going to start with a tablespoon of olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot. I'm going to put this over low heat because what I'm going to do is I'm going to slow cook the garlic. Just two cloves of garlic right into the pot using garlic press. We're going to let the garlic cook slowly. It gets golden it gets sticky and it develops this deep rich flavor that I love especially in this roasted soup. It adds to that roasted flavor. So this takes about 10 minutes or so. Okay while that cooks let's chop up an onion. I'm going to use a red onion. Cutting onions if you're a crier red onions don't make you cry as much as a good old yellow onion. But my mother my mother's eyes it looks so painful when she cuts onions. So this is what my father's done for my mother. He has an onion cutting day and he'll spend a couple hours to buy a big bag of yellow onions. He'll peel them all he'll cut them all precisely and he'll measure them into freezer bags because one cup of chopped onion is one onion and you can use them right out of the freezer right into a hot pot. He's basically ensuring he gets soup. All right so there's the onion. I didn't cut it too precisely that's because this is a pureed soup. It's all going in the blender at the end anyway. All right now back to the peppers. Going to chop them coarsely. Again size and precision really doesn't matter with this because the soup's going to be pureed anyway. Now as the peppers sit here especially after you remove the skins you'll see some of the juices start to collect in the bottom of the bowl. That is liquid gold. Don't dump that. Make sure that gets into the soup pot because that is the roasted flavor that makes this soup taste amazing. All right going to put those chopped peppers right back in the bowl using the largest bench scraper ever. My favorite bench scraper. I haven't named it yet. To be named. All right now let's take a look at that garlic. Here's the garlic. You can see it's golden. It's sticking together. Straw colored. That is perfect. All right time to add the onions. All right I'm going to increase the heat to medium. Cook the onions till they're nice and softens. That takes about five minutes which gives us time to talk about the spices in the soup which is a key component to their flavor. We're going to use a little bit of cumin just half a teaspoon of cumin and then we're also going to use one of my all-time favorites smoked paprika. I have this in the cupboard at all times. It just adds a little oomph to whatever you're cooking whether it be eggs a simple pot of soup a stew and the recipe calls for half a teaspoon but I love this spice so much. I've been known to add just a bit more because I can't get enough. I'm all purpose flour. Just need about a tablespoon. That's just going to help thicken up the soup. All right let's go check on those onions. Oh they're perfectly nicely softened. There's a little bit of brown fond in the bottom of the pot which is ideal. So in go the spices and you want to let them cook for about 30 seconds. That way they'll toast a bit and they'll bloom their flavor into the oil in the pot. Next goes in the flour. That was a tablespoon. Two tablespoons of tomato paste. I'm just going to measure it right out of the tube. We're going to cook those for about a minute. You can see the fond on the bottom of the pot. Oh it's going to be a good pot of soup. Next goes in some broth. This is four cups of chicken broth. You could use vegetable broth if you wanted to keep this vegetarian. I'm just going to whisk this in trying to get rid of any clumps that might have formed of the tomato paste and the flour. Oh that smells good. Finally the peppers go into the pot along with all of the juices they're sitting in. Last just a single bay leaf. Now keep track of this because you want to pull it out before you puree it. We're going to bring this to a simmer. Let it cook now about five minutes till those peppers are really soft and all the flavors have melded. Alright this soup is nicely cooked. Now time to puree it. Of course you got to get the bay leaf out first. I once saw a New Yorker cartoon where they had lifeguards sitting in a dining room and they were on bay leaf watch. I always loved that one. Alright to puree it you have two options. You can use a blender and go into a clean pot or if you have an immersion blender this is the perfect time to bring it out. Alright that looks pretty good nice and smooth. If you want an absolutely silky smooth soup you probably should use a blender. This will have just a little bit of texture which is my favorite. Alright so the soup up to this point can also be made ahead. We're going to finish it with cream and cherry just before serving but before you add it the soup can hold in the fridge for at least two days. Alright the soup is good up until this point. I'm going to put it back on the stovetop and get ready to make some snow. Alright it's time to make lemon snow which is a great dessert if you're having people over because you can make it well in advance and it's also so old it's new again. People will be surprised at the combination of the vanilla sauce with that lemony meringue. So to get started we're going to make the sauce. This is a standard custard sauce and this is one and a quarter cups whole milk. Now the recipe says to use vanilla extract which really does work well but I am a sucker for seeing those little specks in the custard sauce. I love how they look. So I'm going to use half a vanilla bean but if you were going to use extract you'd add it a little later after you've heated up the milk. So to work with the vanilla bean you want to slice it in half down the middle and then using the tip of a knife usually a paring knife you want to scrape off all the seeds add them to the pot. Alright I'm also going to add the pod to the milk we'll strain it out later but it just helps to reinforce that vanilla flavor. Onto the stove this goes we're going to bring this to a boil. While that heats up we're going to crack some eggs. Now this recipe uses three eggs but you have to separate them because you're going to use the yolks in the sauce and the egg whites for the meringue part. So to crack an egg I always crack it on the surface because you get a cleaner crack then I break it open whites go in one bowl yolks go in another and I'm going to use the shell the shell method for this and that's because I want the whites nice and clean I don't want to get any oils from my hands on the whites that could interrupt their ability to form nice peaks and with every egg make sure it's good and fresh and then I'm going to add it right to the mixer bowl. One time one time I was working for a catering company and we had to crack a ton of eggs and I was just doing them all into one big bowl and I got one bad egg ruined the whole batch and ever since then I do it one at a time that way you don't waste any that one's good and a bad egg you don't really have to even sniff it you know it's bad as soon as you crack open it's the only time I've ever had a bad egg though. All right so that's three whites in the standing mixer bowl ready to make meringue later back into this bowl I'm going to put all the yolks into this I'm going to whisk a little bit of sugar this is a quarter cup of sugar and a pinch of salt so you want to whisk this together to let sugar dissolve you don't want to do this too far ahead of time before you've put the milk on the stove because the sugar and the salt will actually start to dehydrate and cook the eggs so you want to do it right after you've put the milk on the stove. All right let's see how it's coming along all right that milk is boiling which is perfect I'm going to slowly whisk it into the yolks just a little bit at a time tempering the yolks essentially bringing their temperature up very slowly so they don't cook all at once and make scrambled eggs there we go mmm that smells delicious back into the pot the whole mixture goes back on the heat the sauce goes low heat you want to stir it constantly or else you'll get