Spanish style pasta sauce

 A couple of weeks ago when we were first allowed to meet people from another household in the open, I met my friends Penny and Mark in the rotunda at Darling Gardens one afternoon.  They very kindly brought me some garden produce, including silverbeet and coriander. When I was wondering what to cook the next evening I remembered a recipe I sometimes cook with sherry, mushrooms and pinenuts. Its origins are a bit obscured by the passing of time but my memory is that it was originally based on a tapas recipe that I read in a library book. Sometimes I cook it with ham but this time I added coriander, silverbeet and some chicken that I happened to have. As it was once a tapas you could eat it as such or by itself, but I had it with some pasta!  The serving is enough for one person.

Ingredients

1 leaf silverbeet

5 mushrooms

1 handful of pine nuts

1 clove garlic

1 stem coriander

1 spring onion

100 gr chicken cut for stirfry

1 sherry glass dry sherry

Olive oil

Mode

Heat some olive oil in a pan on the stovetop

Crush the garlic

Slice the spring onion

Add the garlic and spring onion to the oil and stir until covered

Slice the mushrooms and add

Chop the coriander and add

Add the pine nuts

All the while continue to stir

Add the sherry and stir

Chop the silverbeet including the stems

Add the silverbeet and the chicken to the mixture

Continue to stir until the chicken is sealed

Turn the heat down to a simmer

Cover and summer until the chicken is tender

Serve with rice, pasta or noodles.

Rainbow σεσκουλόπιτα

Μιαμ μιαμ! I haven't used rainbow silverbeet to make σεσκουλόπιτα before. However, when I saw it in the supermarket yesterday while shopping for food to cook for some friends who had been in an accident, I thought I would get it and experiment. It was delicious and I will use it was an ingredient again.  I haven't heard the verdict of my friends yet, but I enjoyed it.

With these ingredients you could make make one large pie.  I made a medium size and a small to accommodate for the two households.

Ingredients

1 bunch rainbow silverbeet (including stalks)

4 spring onions

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp Sambal oelek

3 tsp crushed ginger root

400 gr ricotta

150 gr fetta

1 egg

Phyllo pastry

Olive oil

Poppyseeds 

Mode

Place a steamer on the stove and bring water to the boil

Turn on oven to preheat to 180c

Meanwhile roughly chop the rainbow silverbeet including coloured stalks

Add to steamer

Chop spring onions and add to steamer

Crush garlic and add to steamer

Crush ginger root and add to steamer

Add Sambal oelek

Steam until vegetables tender

Meanwhile place ricotta in mixing bowl

Crumble fetta and add

Add egg

Add steamed vegetables

Stir to mix completely

Place one sheet of phyllo on the base of the oven dish

Baste with olive oil

Repeat the process 5-6 times

Spoon the mixture on the phyllo and smooth 

Fold the ends of pastry over the vegetables and cheese basting as you go

Cover top with an extra sheet or two of phyllo basted with oil

Sprinkle poppyseed on top

Cook in 180c oven for 45 minutes