Cheese pie

Every greek would agree that pies are big in Greece; and not without reason. They can be such a filling, healthy and cheap meal and can satisfy everyones palette. However, cheese pie sits at the top of most people’s preferences.

This recipe comes from my partner’s mother cookbook and it never fails to impress.

We haven’t prepared the pastry ourselves, but you can definitely go ahead and make your own. Specifically, we used filo pastry which is quite traditional and light, but puff pastry would also do.

Ingredients

• 400 grams of feta cheese
• 1 package of filo pastry (or puff pastry if you prefer)
• 3 cups of milk
• 4 table spoons of olive oil
• 4 table spoons of flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tea spoon of sesame seeds (optional)
• 1/2 tea spoon salt
• pepper

Method

Filling preparation

1. Warm up the milk in a pot; make sure it doesn’t come to boil. Remove from heat.
2. Beat up the eggs and keep them aside.
3. Separately, heat up the olive oil and add the flour whilst stirring fast. The mix will turn into granules.
4. Gradually add the warmed up milk. Continue stirring to smooth the mixture out.
5. Add the beaten up eggs in the mix by leaving one table spoon aside (we will use it to brush the top of the pie).
6. Stir until the mixture takes a smooth creamy texture (tip: if there are still big chunks of flour, you can use a hand blender to it smooth out).
7. Remove from heat, crumble the feta cheese into the mix and season with salt and pepper.

Pie preparation

1. Preheat the oven at 180^oC.
2. For the base of the pie, grease a baking pan with oil and start by laying half of the pastry sheets  by also oiling in between.
3. Continue by adding the filling.

4. For the top of the pie, lay the remaining sheets by also oiling in between. Fold the excess of the pastry sheets inwards. If you find that there are more than 2 fingers (approximately 4 cm) of excess pastry on the edgers, trim accordingly with a sharp knife.

5. Oil the top of the pie and brush with the remaining table spoon of eggs to give it an extra shine. Optionally you can sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Place in the oven for 45 min at 180^oC.

Enjoy!