No. 2 - Albania drove me insania!

(I am so sorry, they’re just gonna get worse and worse. I can’t help myself.)

Albanian Byrek (spinach and feta “filo” tart)

For Albania I needed make filo pastry – from scratch. If you have enough space, don’t mind the mess and are not put off by having to use a mop handle as your rolling pin (thoroughly washed, I promise), by all means give it a go. In future however I will be buying it prerolled and frozen.  Unless your Albenian grandmamma has taught you, you may never get it as thin as proper filo, I certainly didn’t. I know its not that helpful giving a recipe for a pastry that failed but this is, I guess, what not to do? The filling is yum - spinach and feta, whats not to like. So good in fact, you could screw the pastry altogether. And kudos to Gretta for giving me a hand, whilst holding a nice big glass of red in the other!

Serves 4 for dinner

Plain flour, 400g

Cornflour, for dusting

salt, pinch

400ml of tepid water or there abouts

Spinach, 200g bag

Feta cheese, block, crumbled.

Small onion, chopped.

Pepper, freshly ground.

I started by attempting to make the pastry (don’t do it). Mix together the flour and salt and make a well in the middle. Gradually add water and stir in with a fork until it forms a dough. Its the same method for bread so do it whatever way you’re used to. Knead for a few minutes then divide into 8 balls. Four balls become the base of the pie and four balls become the top.

Dust your surface with a little cornflour, put a ball on the cornflour and then sprinkle a little more cornflour on top of the ball. Roll it out to about the size of your hand, brush it with a little oil and then place another rolled out ball on top. Repeat until you’ve your four balls rolled and stacked but do not brush the top of the final ball with oil. Had enough of balls yet? Next you have to roll out the stack you’ve made to be as thin as you can possibly make it - translucent thin if you can. Make sure you dust with cornflour. Repeat all of the above with the other four balls, so you have two really thin, large sheets of filo pastry. Make sure they’re slightly bigger then your tin.

Then get on with filling which is thankfully simpler than the pastry! Heat up some oil in a pan and throw in a diced onion and fry until translucent. Pile on your spinach and wilt, then throw in your block of feta, smash it up and mix it in. Season with loads of black pepper. Done.

Back to the pastry. Brush your tin with a little oil and roll the pastry around your rolling pin/mop handle and transfer it to the base of the tin. Press it into the corners. Spread the spinach and feta mixture on top of this and then top with the other sheet of pastry. Cut off any excess pastry and kind of roll and squeeeze the two sheets together to form a seal. Finally brush the entire surface with a little oil and bang into a hot oven until the top is golden and puffed.

Serve with left over salata from Afghanistan!

If anyone can successfuly make this pastry will they please let me know. I can’t believe I have been defeated already, and its only country number 2!