Yummy focaccia (with greek feta and oregano)

My favorite 3 ingredients (dough, feta and oregano) all in one recipe! And who can resist in a good focaccia in any case? If you share the same values ;) go for it! Of course, we are open minded here, feel free to adapt to your own favorites! 

Greek filo or fyllo dough for pies

Have you ever tasted spanakopita or spanakotyropita ? Oh my... I have given the recipe long time ago in this blog but using ready made filo. I have never given the recipe for a homemade "filo", the basic ingredient and this is outrageous for someone who comes from Thessaly, the region for traditional greek pies!
I will try to remediate today by dedicating this recipe to my mum, the best ever cooker who abandoned school very early to cook for her family that worked to the fields and who knows how to "open" the thinner ever possible filo. Sorry mum, I cannot compete with you, at least I try :)
Prepare though for quite some work, my moto "simple but delicious" is true only at half !
Attention: You will need a special wooden rounded stick or anything equivalent.
P.S : I have added some heavy cream in the filling of the original recipe today. 

Zucchini and feta tarte

Here's a simple, light and tasty tarte for summer dinners...

Tyropita, the greek feta cheese pie!

Family was asking for tyropita, the Greek feta cheese pie, last week and searching to find the recipe in my blog I realized that it was missing! I had only the spanakotyropita recipe that is even better but more complicated. So, you can imagine the rest... had to take photos on top of cooking :)
I was extremely busy & tired and so was my daughter that I asked to take fast some photos, which explains the low quality of the result. But it's better than nothing,  no?
So, if you like feta cheese, try this recipe and you won't regret it :)
My only regret is that I had to leave immediately after so I tasted it much later at night when I came back... at least family was nice and had left me a few pieces !

Feta cheese balls

Remember the recipe of feta cheese pies (tyropitakia)?
It's one of our favorite salty starters and if you have never tried it before this is the moment to do it!

I am giving you an alternative that is pretty simple, much simpler than the original recipe.

Spinach-feta pie (spanakotyropita)

[UPDATED: Check also the alternatives here]
Do you like spinach and cheese? Especially feta cheese? Imagine adding the subtle smell of the dill on top and cover all of them with crunchy layers of a pastry like "filo"... Yummy... We call this "spanakotyropita" in greek and it is a pie that is made with filo and has a filling of spinach and feta.
I come exactly from the region that is known for this and normally, it is even better if we make our own pastry of filo. I will be sincere here, it takes time to make your own filo, so let's use today the ready made one, but of good quality still...

Tyropitakia (Feta cheese pies with yoghurt dough)

I will share today with you, one of my favorite recipes, the "tyropitakia"! "Tyropitakia" are small cheese pies made with feta and there are various recipes to make them. The most known recipe is the one with pastry "fyllo" but today, I will give you the recipe that has a dough made with yoghurt and which is my favorite one.

They are delicious! If you end up falling in love with them like me, double the ingredients to make them last longer as they tend to disappear immediately coming out of the oven :) And if you are lazy, just mix everything and form small feta balls instead! (second photo on top)

Greek pizza with feta!

Greek pizza with feta!

For the fans of feta, today, a greek version of pizza! I call it greek just because I use feta cheese instead of mozzarella cheese. I like mozzarella and I have lots of dear friends from Italy that have persuaded me that real pizza is with mozzarella cheese. But it's a nice change from time to time to use feta. In my case it's even practical, as feta cheese is always present in our fridge :) But believe me, the combination of bread, tomato, cheese and oregano is F A N T A S T I C...

Ingredients
Dough (for 2 pizzas or a big one)

500gr of flour (Type 00 special pizza)
10gr of active dry yeast (or the equivalent of dry one)
300ml of warm water
10gr of salt, 

1 spoon of olive oil

Topping
tomato sauce
salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil
slices of ham
1 cup feta cheese
some grated emmental cheese
olives
frankfurt sausages
mushrooms

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 250 degrees of Celsius in grill mode. 

Dissolve the yeast in the water. 

In a big bowl, put the rest of the ingredients and pour the water/yeast mix and make a nice dough by mixing with your hands. 

Cover with a towel and leave the dough to rest in a warm place, until the dough gets double in volume (time will vary depending on the temperature of the room, around 1-2h). If you want to accelerate the time, warm the oven at 50 degrees of Celsius, turn it off and put the bowl with the dough in. the oven.

When dough has doubled, knead it again for a minute and put it in a floured surface.

 Flatten the dough as shown in the photo, to make the base of the pizza.

 Make a tomato sauce by mixing some crushed canned tomatoes, salt, pepper, olive oil and oregano. Cover the base of the pizza with this sauce. On top, put the ham, then the feta cheese in pieces,and sprinkle some grated emmental cheese all over. Add olives, sliced mushrooms, frankfurt sausages in pieces and tomato slices. Sprinkle on top some oregano and some olive oil. Put in the oven for 10 min or until the dough gets a nice golden color and here it is! Yummy...