I was watching British cooking shows while trimming the tree the other day. One of them featured a gorgeous Moroccan pie or pastry. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to actually get the recipe but I did get the idea.
Naturally, I had to modify it to suit….
The problem was she used a quiche pan. She lined it with the pastry, filled it, folded the pastry over and baked it. After 30 minutes, she inverted it on to a baking sheet, removed the quiche dish and finished baking it.
As I wanted to do something with shrimp for dinner, a quiche pan was too big. I didn’t have a smaller pan so I decided I would go free-form. I may have to work on the folding part….
She used a Moroccan pastry we know as ‘Brick Pastry’ here but is very similar to phyllo. One advantage is it’s not quite so easy to tear and it doesn’t dry out so quickly. It’s properly called ‘Warqa‘ – click to read.
Shrimp and Spinach Pie
35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 10oz (300gr) cleaned, cooked shrimp
- 3oz (190gr) fresh spinach
- 4 sheets of brick pastry – substitute phyllo dough
- 1/3 cup (3oz, 90gr) soft goat cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- olive oil
Instructions:
- Whisk the egg in a large bowl
- Add goat cheese, herbs, spices and whisk well
- Add the spinach and shrimp and stir to combine
- On a baking sheet: Lay 3 brick pastries out like a cloverleaf (they’re round, about 15″, 38cm in diameter) but overlapping by about half.
- Lay the 4th pastry in the center
- Spoon the shrimp and spinach in the center, keeping it together, not mounded, but not spread out thinly either
- Fold the pasty over the top, tucking in where you can.
- Brush the top with olive oil
- Bake, 400F (200C) for 25 – 30 minutes, until well browned.
- Remove, cut into wedges and serve.
It’s getting colder here.
Mon mari is hustling to get the insulation up so we are no longer attempting to heat the universe.
It’s not his favorite job (is it anyone’s?). Something about having to wear a mask and all the itching from the fibers.
I don’t know what he’s complaining about… It’s such a straight-forward job for our ceilings…
So he has nooks and crannies to tuck it into… That means he can use up all those little pieces he has to cut.
Right?
And just think how nice and toasty all the mice will be when they move in!
I wonder if anyone has thought about inventing mouse-repellent insulation….
And speaking of mice, last night while making dinner, I kept hearing this awful rattling noise from the pantry. I thought it was the freezer giving up.
Turns out it was a mouse in a bucket that was half full of walnuts and couldn’t get out.
At least he wouldn’t starve….
Whenever I do a rough-ish job with pastry dough, I just call it rustic. Works for me. And I do very much like your pastry packet and the ingredients inside.
Insulation laced with boric acid crystals could to the trick. It’s a good mouse deterrent. Did I spell boric right?
I’m with Christine, rustic works and especially so when there’s such a lovely filling.
Boric acid! Why not! Mice don’t like it … neither do the roaches;-)
The sounds good! And lucky me, I’ve got all the ingredients.
Good luck with the “winterizing!”
That looks beautiful, no need to work on anything. I’ve also read that mice hate mint. Even if it doesn’t work, it makes the house smell good.
I wish I could find that pastry here since it is probably more like homemade phyllo. It is getting colder so all the little critters will be coming in.
I have never heard of warga pastry and had no idea that mice like walnuts – a day of learning for me !!
I think it looks delic. 32 Deg C here in Oz. No meece, lots of flies 🙂
Getting chillier here, too, but in California I don’t have mice, I have ants every winter. I think they come in to get out of the rain. I sprinkle cinnamon and/or baby powder over the places where I see them entering and that seems to dissuade them. Non toxic, and it smells good, too.
It’s getting cooler here as well Katie in Montreal (-6C last night – roads iced up with freezing drizzle from night before). I always keep a few packs of the pastry in my freezer – for those – last minute recipe ideas – and I’ll be using your recipe you’ve posted here very soon – as it sounds simply scrumptious!!! Psst – I keep my nuts (no comment here please) – in the freezer – so far – no mice have discovered how to open up the door – tho’ we have lots of them in the garage (which needs insulation as well – since we’re also heating the outdoors like you are).
Oh I know how to take this rustic to glorious … pomegranate seeds! Wouldn’t that make it festive and beautiful.
Christine – rustic! I like that. Too many mice out here in the country, I think!
Tanna, never seen a roach here – in any of the places we’ve lived. Lucky us!
Pam, thanks – slowly we stop hating the universe.
Jeri, I’ll remember the mint next year when I harvest the herbs.
Val, they’re coming in and there’s a lot more activity at night – the night critters hunting… Must be the cold, too.
manningroad, yeah, they keep hiding them in my outdoor shoes which I keep in the barn LOL
Hi, Gail – that’s the sad thing here… we have the flies, too. Must be all the livestock in the neighborhood.
Zoomie, polenta works for ants, too – I do that in the garden. Cheaper than cinnamon 😉
Anna, we have 3 walnut trees, so we have bushels of nuts. We can spare a few… if they didn’t make so much noise eating them.
Tanna, my pomegranate tree produced 1 pomegranate this year…. But great idea! And pretty!